TEN LITTLE HUNTERS
by UhhICanExplain
Summary: Ten little hunters all gathered to dine. Who will survive? The answers you'll find. Rated M for violence. [Indefinite Hiatus] Interactive
1. TEASER: The Riddle

**This is a teaser for my second big project that I've been working on! Of course, this was heavily inspired by Rooster Teeth's very own Ten Little Roosters miniseries and I figured, it's the time when RWBY fans go crazy because we can't wait for Volume 3, and I thought it would to keep us on our toes to do a fun little whodunit! **

**EDIT: Since so many of you pointed out that "themself" is not a word, I have amended this.**

* * *

**TEN LITTLE HUNTERS**

Ten little hunters all gathered to dine

One choked on a joke and then there were nine

Nine little hunters all took the bait

One died for their lover and then there were eight

Eight little hunters, a torch for the lemon

A light was snuffed out and then there were seven

Seven little hunters, three out of the mix

One sacrificed all and then there were six

Six little hunters, none yet to shrive

One ran from themselves and then there were five

Five little hunters, one behind a cage door

Curiosity killed the cat and then there were four

Four little hunters, one loved to make tea

One died like a god and then there were three

Left were three hunters

One's tables were spun

The killer cut down

And then there was one

* * *

**The Hunters:**

Ruby – Weiss – Blake – Yang – Jaune – Nora – Pyrrha – Ren – Sun – Neptune

* * *

**The Weapons:**

Crocea Mors

King Taijitu Venom

Fire Extinguisher

Hedge Shears

Myrtenaster

Blake's Bow

Juan Arc, Jaune's Mexican Cousin

Swordfish

Ruyi Bang &amp; Jingu Bang

Ozpin's Cane

A Zombified Velvet

Rogue Weapons Locker

Penny

Foottraps

Ninjas of Love

Gambol Shroud

Professor Port's Grimm Cages

A Walking, Talking, _Dancing_ Grimm in a Top Hat

Skinning Machine

Drowning by Bathtub

A Room of Mirrors

Zwei the Dog

* * *

**A few orders of business here: this mystery covers not only the whole of RWBY lore, but also some references to other fanfics, mythology that the characters are based on, as well as one or two external references and wordplay because I'm a little bit cruel. Hehe.**

**Second: beware the red herrings. You guys know that, right?**

**Third: I'm not quite working on this yet, as I still want to work a little more on Blake &amp; Jaune's Infinite Playlist first, so it may be a bit before an actual chapter comes out. This is just to get you all worked up, because once again, I'm a heartless motherfucker.**

**Lastly: I think I will open up polls so that you guys can see how well your detective skills are after every chapter. I still don't know what I want to do for prizes, so just know that there will be prizes! (that, for the most part, don't involve me spending money, mind you)**

**SOOOOOOOO I guess I'll leave you to speculating. Happy sleuthing!**


	2. AND THEN THERE WERE NINE

**And here it is, at last! The first chapter of Ten Little Hunters is finally out. Get your detective caps ready, because after the chapter the sleuthing commences - the part where YOU come in! More will be explained at the end of the chapter, but how about I stop talking and let you get started on the case?**

**After all, you have _quite_ a lot of work to do.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: AND THEN THERE WERE NINE**

* * *

It could have been a dark and stormy night. Maybe it wasn't. Point is, nobody fucking cares because that's super cliché and not part of the plot at all.

The end of Team RWBY's first year had come, and not a moment too soon. Before they all went back home for the summer break, the team decided to kick back and celebrate what had come and what had gone. Most of the school had already departed, but the stragglers were making the best of their last day, and currently Team RWBY was lounging in Team JNPR's room along with all of Team JNPR and Sun and Neptune. Yang had whipped a bottle of champagne from out of thin air and poured a cup for some of the occupants. Pyrrha had declined and opted to make tea for herself and anyone else who wanted it, to which Sun, Ren, and Blake graciously accepted.

The scene was not quite one of absolute chaos, but considering that it was RWBY, JNPR, and half of SSSN all in one room, it was about as close as you could get to absolute chaos while still having not broken anything yet. Yang, Ruby, Jaune, and Nora surrounded a very loud and intense round of _Remnant: The Game_, with Yang and Jaune tied neck and neck for first, Ruby in fetal position as she watched her army get destroyed by yet _another_ Giant Nevermore card, and Nora just happy to be there.

At the kitchen table, Sun sighed contently as he leaned back in his chair. "This sight never gets old," he commented as he sipped at the steaming-hot tea from his mug. "Y'know, I never expected you to be a tea bag kinda guy, Ren."

Ren blew on his own mug. "It's more convenient. Dorm regulations don't leave much room for classic brewing."

"Suppose not," murmured Sun. "These still taste pretty good, honestly."

"They're a bit overdone for my taste," chimed Blake, adjacent to Sun. "This one's too tangy. Tea shouldn't taste like that."

"Bit of a hipster there, aren't ya?" Sun grinned at Blake.

"No, just well-cultured, you philistine."

"… For the record, I hate it when you call me that."

"Because you don't know what the word means?"

"No!... Yes… maybe?"

"Uh-huh."

Pyrrha chucked at the two. "Glad to see us all relaxing like this. It's been quite the long year," She turned to glance at the table of bickering board game players, namely Jaune. "Everyone's been a bit high-strung with exams and whatnot."

Sun resumed leaning back in his chair. "Yup! We're relaxed alright!" He heard a giggle from off to the side. "Some of us more than others."

They all turned towards the far corner of the room, where Weiss and Neptune were endlessly chatting and laughing with each other by the window, about what no one knew, as the pandemonium of the board game drowned them out. Weiss was swaying like a palm frond in the wind, and Neptune was doing his best to keep her from falling out of her seat.

"Is she… getting drunk… off champagne?" whispered Sun incredulously.

Ren shrugged. "It's not the most surprising thing in the world. She's not a particularly big person, by any stretch of the imagination."

Sun laughed. "I believe the word you're looking for is 'midget'."

"That's offensive, Sun," chided Blake, jabbing and elbow at Sun's ribs.

He grunted. "Yeah? Well, so is philistine!"

"You don't even know what it means."

"It sure _sounds_ offensive…" Sun scowled, before turning back to the pair by the window. "I'd sure like to know what her New Year's Eves are like, with that kind of alcohol tolerance."

He turned towards Pyrrha. "What do you think?"

Pyrrha cocked her head, confused. "About them? Well, I think they make quite the cute couple," she answered politely.

"No no no no," Sun waved his hands in front of him. "I meant when are you and Jaune getting together?"

Pyrrha's face immediately flushed red. "M-me and J-J-Jaune? W-well, what makes you say that?" she stammered.

Sun grinned. "I see how you look at that boy. Watching his every move, smiling at his every quirk. You fall head over heels for him every time he literally falls head over heels. And everyone knows it, too."

Pyrrha tried to sink back in her chair and make herself as small as possible. "He's my partner. I'm just looking out for him, as any good partner should!"

Sun took a large swig of his tea. "Nah, you're totally in love and it's super obvious, too!"

Pyrrha frowned. "I am _not_ super obvious. Besides, it's not that big of a deal. Nobody really wants to hear any of this, right? Right, Blake?" She glanced pleadingly at Blake for any help.

Blake sipped on her tea nonchalantly. "You're not the best at drawing attention away from yourself, considering your experience with fame, ironically. But…" she said with a smirk. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to hear what you have to say about you and Jaune."

Pyrrha blanched, and turned to her fellow teammate. "Ren? Am I…?" she trailed off, going to her last line of defense.

"Yes."

She slumped back in her chair – a rare posture for the champion – as her heart begin to sink, when suddenly (to Pyrrha's relief) an uproar from the other table drew everyone's attention.

"I WIN!" bellowed Yang, standing atop the table in a victorious pose. "Take that!" she yelled pointedly at Jaune, whose head was in his hands as he tried to make sense of his kingdom's shattering downfall.

"Nooooo…" he moaned.

"…ra?" chimed Nora happily, seemingly unaware that she had lost just as utterly.

Pyrrha instinctively rose out of her seat to go comfort the crestfallen Arc – and felt three pairs of eyes upon her. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to face Ren, Blake, and Sun. "It's not what you think."

Sun shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's exactly what we think."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and made her way over to Jaune, putting her hands on his shoulders and rubbing them.

The monkey faunus grinned and was about to share snarky remarks with Blake when the sound of clinking glass rang out over the room.

"Ahem… Well, now that this… _disaster_ is over…" Ruby glanced dolefully over at the disheveled game board before raising her glass. "Sisters! Friends! Wei-"

"Doooon't you daaaare," slurred Weiss, semiconsciously contributing from inside Neptune's arms. Neptune grinned sheepishly at the rest of the group.

"Uh, right!" Ruby cleared her throat. "It's been one heck of a year! From kicking terrorist butt to saving people from big scary Grimm, I'd say we're pretty accomplished for first years! Firstly, we all managed to pass those finals, so that's an accomplishment in itself! Congrats everybody."

A round of applause chorused in the room.

"Second, Pyrrha straight up destroyed competition in this year's Vytal Tournament with the giant trophy to prove it! A hand for our resident badass!" Woots and claps echoed as Pyrrha blushed and grinned humbly, reaching a hand to scratch the back of her head. Jaune squeezed her other hand proudly.

"And of course, a toast to some pretty cool new friends we made this year! Our favorite petty criminal friend Sun…" Ruby grinned at Sun, who rolled his eyes, "… who almost became our friend by just showing up all the time. And Neptune, who happened to be dragged along for the ride!" Ruby pointed in Weiss and Neptune's general direction, and he flashed a sparkling white grin.

"Although now that he's here," added Yang, gesturing towards Neptune and Weiss with a twinkle in her eye. "I guess you could say he got… frozen in place?"

A collective groan filled the room. Sun, who had been sipping his tea, choked at the abysmal punchline, and Blake rubbed his back as he erupted into a coughing fit.

Ruby facepalmed. "Thanks Yang… now with that out of the way, I just wanna say that I'm so glad to have met you all. I honestly don't know where I would be if I hadn't met you guys. Sheesh, I wasn't even thinking about making friends before Beacon, but now that I have, I wouldn't trade any of you for the world. You guys are the best. Cheers!"

A resounding "Cheers!" echoed amongst the ten hunters, and Yang grabbed Ruby in a crushing bear hug. "Awww, I'm so proud of my little sister!" said Yang as Ruby squirmed in her grasp.

"It's nothing," muttered Ruby, muffled in her sister's bosom. "Now would be a great time to let go-"

"Uh… guys?" blurted Jaune. "I hate to break up the city of sisterly love here, but I think something's wrong with Sun."

It was true. The monkey faunus had not stopped choking and his face was starting to turn blue. Suddenly, Sun fell out of his chair and crumpled on the floor.

"SUN!" yelled Blake and Neptune simultaneously. Blake immediately knelt by his side to aid him in any way she could while Neptune propped Weiss up against the chair before rushing over. The rest of the room had gone deathly quiet.

Slowly the choking ceased, but that wasn't the only thing. "He's not breathing," murmured Neptune, fingers on his teammate's neck as he tried to feel for a pulse.

Blake had abruptly stood back up and promptly grabbed Sun's almost empty tea mug to sniff at it. After a brief pause, she set the cup back down, the color drained from her face. "Almonds."

"Almonds…? Oh no…" Pyrrha's hand flew up to her mouth. She instantly grabbed her tea and sniffed it. "Mine doesn't smell like it. Blake? Ren? What about yours?" She inquired worriedly, and both responded in the negative.

Nora looked between the three, a confused look on her face. "Uh… what's so bad about almonds? I get that some people don't like them, but you must have some really big grudge against them to go as far as blaming almonds for some choking Sun out…"

"He was poisoned with cyanide," said Blake flatly.

"Oh."

Ruby stared wide-eyed at Sun's unmoving body. "Who would do such a thing?" she mumbled, still in shock.

"Maybe somebody misplaced the almonds and the cyanide?" offered Nora.

Blake examined the cup. "It would've had to be someone who could access chemicals like this with ease. Also, considering that Sun is a faunus, it may be someone with a faunus vendetta." Blake looked out of the corner of her eye at Weiss, who shot up clumsily, knocking her chair over.

"That's preposterous!" she slurred angrily. "Even if he's a bit of a rogue, I have absolutely no reason to kill him at all. Maybe you should be blaming the person who poured the cups!" All eyes turned to Pyrrha.

For once, Pyrrha looked indignant. "You can't be serious. Like Ruby said, I'm glad to have you all as friends, so don't you _dare_ assume that I would murder any of my closest allies. The nerve…"

"Okay!" Ruby reigned in everyone's attention. "We can't start throwing fingers at people. We have to do this the logical way. First off, we need to see if we can get Sun any help – if we're fast enough, he may be able to survive. Second, we need to let Ozpin know what the situation is. I say we split into our teams – we'll get Ozpin and you guys grab the nurses. Neptune, you can come with us. We'll take care of these things then meet in the commons. Make sure to grab your weapons as well. Are we good?"

A collective nod.

"Great. Let's go!" And with that, the teams exited the JNPR dorm room noiselessly and made their way through the eerily quiet halls of Beacon.

* * *

About ten minutes later, the groups reconvened in the commons area.

"You guys get Ozpin?" huffed Jaune as his team came to a halt.

Weiss narrowed her already barely open eyes. "Yup. He's right here," she slurred in mock cheerfulness, motioning exasperatedly to the empty space beside her.

Jaune winced. "I think I liked you better sober. Somehow you got meaner."

Ren looked past Weiss's seething sarcasm. "Figured as much. We couldn't find the nurses either."

"On that note, have you seen anybody else?" chimed Ruby. "It's as if they all just disappeared into thin air…"

Pyrrha nodded. "You're right. Ozpin would be the most likely to stay back here, but it concerns me that his post is empty."

"Do you think he forgot about us?" inquired Nora.

Pyrrha frown. "That doesn't seem like something the headmaster would do."

Nora shrugged. "I guess so. He's the old type, but not the forgetful type."

Blake's head drooped. "Dammit. We couldn't help Sun…" she sniffed bitterly.

Yang wrapped Blake comfortingly in a hug. "It's okay. It's not your fault, Blake."

A short, somber silence washed over the nine hunters as the impact of the situation weighed down on them. One of their own was dead, and there seemed to not be a single other soul in the whole of the academy.

Finally, Jaune broke the silence. "Weiss. Blake. Neptune. Where are your weapons?"

Blake and Weiss looked at each other. "We couldn't find them," confessed Weiss. "Our lockers were open when we got there. As if someone had stolen them."

"Sun and I left ours back at the place Sun and I were staying at," shrugged Neptune. "We didn't think we'd be needing them, although I guess we should've known better at this point."

"That's unfortunate," sighed Jaune. "So, what do we do now?"

"Why don't we try to get out of Beacon?" offered Ren. "Once we're out, we can probably be able to get someone to help us out, be it the authorities or whatnot."

"Good idea, Renny!" exclaimed Nora immediately. "I'm on board. Everyone?"

No one disagreed.

* * *

However, when they reached the main door, they found it to be locked shut.

"Dammit!" grumbled Yang, who attempted to punch the door open but to no avail.

"Oh no…" moaned Jaune. "What do we do _now_?"

"We could read this_._"

Blake had snatched a single leaf of paper that had been taped somewhat discreetly to the door. The others quickly gathered around her as she began to read the paper out loud.

"_Ten little hunters all gathered to dine, one choked on a joke and then there were nine._

_Nine little hunters all took the bait, one died for their lover and then there were eight._

_Eight little hunters, a torch for the lemon, a light was snuffed out and then there were seven._

_Seven little hunters, three out of the mix, one sacrificed all and then there were six._

_Six little hunters, none yet to shrive, one ran from themselves and then there were five._

_Five little hunters, one behind a cage door, curiosity killed the cat and then there were four._

_Four little hunters, one loved to make tea, one died like a god and then there were three._

_Left were three hunters, one's tables were spun._

_The killer cut down, and then there was one."_

The subsequent silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. Then Ren spoke what was all on their minds:

"The killer is among us."

And just like that, fingers began pointing.

"It was YOU, Weiss! You never liked Sun! Not to mention this killer's got a huge god complex, it has to be you with your overinflated ego!"

"Nonsense! He's still a rascal, but I don't hate him! And I do _not_ have an ego!"

"What about you, Neptune? He always dragged you places you didn't want to be!"

"H-hey! Don't point at _me_! Killing isn't cool! I can't stand for it. I stand for love. And now, I stand for justice!"

"… that's from a show, isn't it?"

"NO!... Yes…? Shut up, Jaune."

"And I thought the not being able to dance excuse was bad…"

"S-shut up! It's a _cool show_!"

"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!" thundered Yang, whose eyes flashed a deep red. "I can't fucking think when you're all shouting like Ursas with their heads cut off!"

The chaos stopped at once. After Yang had the chance to simmer down, she spoke with more composure. "Any ideas what we should do, people?"

"W-we should try to find the other exits!" cried Weiss. "I don't want to keep wandering around here while the killer is loose!"

"No," interjected Ren. "Since the killer is one of us, we have the best chance of finding him or her and stopping them as soon as possible. Once we leave the building, it'll give the killer a chance to get away."

"That's true!" chirped Nora. "There are nine… I mean, eight of us and only one of them. The odds are stacked in our favor!"

"Can we not take care of it for once?" groaned Jaune.

"I'd have to agree with Jaune," added Pyrrha. "As capable as we are as Hunters and Huntresses in-training, we're still only first years. This is a very prepared killer we're dealing with, and it's one of our own, so he or she knows us better than most. We should leave this to the people who are more qualified to take this job."

"That's exactly what I meant…" muttered Jaune under his breath.

Yang sighed and turned to her little sister. "Ruby, do you any idea what we should do?"

"Why me?" whined Ruby.

"Because you're good at coming up with what to do. You're our leader, after all."

Ruby took a deep breath and began. "Well, if we decide to stay here, then our best bet is to stick together, because at least then, we'll never lose sight of the killer, whoever they may be. Second, we should actually try to figure out these riddles. Does the killer have a concise plan of who they're going to target next, and can we find out quick enough to save the next person? Finally, keep your weapons drawn and your eyes open for any clues or traps the killer may have set down. Maybe then with context clues we can find out who the killer is before he or she can do any…" Ruby gulped. "… any _more_ damage. Everyone good with that plan?"

"Yeah!"

"It sounds like a solid strategy."

"Gonna go catch us a killer and beat their ass!"

Ruby allowed herself a shaky smile. "Alright then. Let's-"

Suddenly it was dark. Confusion and panic ensued as Ruby struggled to find a light amidst the screams and flailing of arms, legs, and metal. When she finally reached what felt like a light switch, Ruby flicked it up, and light once again illuminated the hall and her teammates.

Except that they weren't there.

Ruby blinked.

She frantically searched the spot where they had just been standing. Glanced up, down, left, right – nothing. Not a single trace of their existence remained.

"So much for the plan," muttered Ruby, and she shivered as a chill crawled up her spine.

* * *

_**One choked on a joke and then there were nine.**_

* * *

**HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN!**

**Now would usually be the part where I ask you for and criticisms you might have (they're always welcome, of course), but tonight we have a task of far greater importance to attend to. This is the part where YOU become the detective and try to solve the mystery!**

**On my profile page, there will be a link for you to complete a survey where you try to guess who get's killed next and how they are killed. This week, however, you have to try to find the killer and the survivor as well. THIS WEEK WILL BE YOUR ONLY CHANCE TO FIND THOSE TWO, so take a good long look at the riddles and weapons before submitting. **

**A few points to go over:**

**1\. This mystery uses everything as clues, from RWBY lore, to other popular fanfics, to mythology that the characters are based on, to even some external references that you may get from finding some of those hidden Easter eggs in the story. Use all of these to your advantage.**

**2\. RED HERRINGS EXIST. If the clues just seem way too simple, then it's probably not the right one. Just like the killer doesn't come forward to say "I did it," the clues will not just blatantly say who dies next. Make your judgement calls at your own risk.**

**3\. For every couplet, the first line is insignificant. The second line of each pair is what you should worry about.**

**4\. ****You will have up until Tuesday 7:30PM Central Time to submit your guesses; past then they will NOT be accepted.**

**5\. And of course, PRIZES! (that's what you're here for, right?) Every week, a random winning guess will be picked to win a prize - I will write a one-shot prompt of your choice in the realm of RWBY! ... Yeah, I guess I could've had better prizes, but I'm a broke college kid, so I make do with what I got. (DISCLAIMER: I do not do smut.)**

**However, the person who makes the most correct guesses over the span of the entire mystery will win a grand prize! I'm not quite sure what it will be, but I think at this point, it's a few posters that I've made in the past for RT that never got taken or maybe a game on Steam. So even if you didn't get this weeks guesses right, just keep doing the surveys every week and you could win something that's actually substantial and costs me money!**

**6\. Lastly, YOU MUST HAVE A REDDIT OR FANFICTION USERNAME TO BE PICKED FOR A PRIZE.**

**Whew. That's quite an amount to read. Glad that's done.**

**Ready to tackle the case? Take the survey on my page!**

**Happy hunting!**


	3. Notice Pt 1 & 2

_**NOTICE PART 1**_

* * *

**Hello everyone.**

**As you may have heard, the beloved creator of the RWBY series, Monty Oum, has passed away.**

**A man who had much to contribute to the world, he worked tirelessly to give us content that we all came to love in our own regard. Which, of course, is why we all are here, reading and writing RWBY fanfiction. Without his genius and his relentless work ethic, we most definitely would not be here, joined together by our mutual enjoyment of his brainchild project.**

**He leaves a huge legacy behind, one that inspires me to be a better content creator and person in general, and I hope he inspires you to do so as well.**

**With his passing still fresh on our minds, I am putting Ten Little Hunters on an indefinite hiatus. As much as I realize the content we make will help us get through hard times like these, and that he would only want us to keep on creating, I do not have it in me to write anymore about death or killing. At least not anytime soon.**

**I will focus solely on the much lighter Blake and Jaune's Infinite Playlist for the time being.**

**The current survey will continue as planned until its designated closing time at 7:30PM Central Time Tuesday evening.**

**The plot of TLH has already been planned out, so when (rather, if) I return to this project, please be mindful that the series will most likely not change plot-wise.**

**So as I close the door to TLH for now, my heart is heavy, and I think I've cried all that I could possibly cry. But... I'm also happy. Incredibly happy to have been a part of Monty's world, as a fan, however small that may be. More importantly, I am happy that he was ever here at all.**

**Thank you Monty. You will be missed dearly.**

* * *

**Much love to you all,**

**Uhh_ICanExplain**

* * *

**/**

* * *

_**NOTICE PART 2**_

* * *

**/**

* * *

**Hello everyone.**

**If you're following Blake and Jaune's Infinite Playlist, you may notice that it's beginning to draw to a close, which means I'll have room to work on other projects. And in between then and now, I realized how much I want to continue this fic, so as you can expect... TLH will be making a triumphant return on MARCH 10TH.**

* * *

**I'm also posting this notice because I want to redo the polls. I may have fucked up on the rules, so I'll give a whole run through in just a second.**

**One of the key rules that I had forgotten to add was that a weapon can only be in contention as a murder weapon_ if it has been mentioned in any of the chapters prior to the survey_ (except for the weapon that kills the murderer).This piece of advice should be helpful in being able to define what you can and cannot use instead of randomly guessing weapons.**

* * *

**A quick rehash of the rules, if you need them:**

**1\. This mystery uses everything as clues, from RWBY lore, to other popular fanfics, to mythology that the characters are based on, to even some external references that you may get from finding some of those hidden Easter eggs in the story. Use all of these to your advantage.**

**2\. RED HERRINGS EXIST. If the clues just seem way too simple, then it's probably not the right one. Just like the killer doesn't come forward to say "I did it," the clues will not just blatantly say who dies next. Make your judgement calls at your own risk.**

**3\. For every couplet, the first line is insignificant. The second line of each pair is what you should worry about.**

**4\. Again,**** a weapon can only be in contention as a murder weapon_ if it has been mentioned in any of the chapters prior to the survey_ (except for the weapon that kills the murderer).**

**5\. ****You will have up until Tuesday, MARCH 10TH at 7:30PM Central Time to submit your guesses; past then they will NOT be accepted.**

**6\. And of course, PRIZES! (that's what you're here for, right?) Every week, a random winning guess will be picked to win a prize - I will write a one-shot prompt of your choice in the realm of RWBY! ... Yeah, I guess I could've had better prizes, but I'm a broke college kid, so I make do with what I got. (DISCLAIMER: I do not do smut.)**

**However, the person who makes the most correct guesses over the span of the entire mystery will win a grand prize! I'm not quite sure what it will be, but I think at this point, it's a few posters that I've made in the past for RT that never got taken or maybe a game on Steam. So even if you didn't get this weeks guesses right, just keep doing the surveys every week and you could win something that's actually substantial and costs me money!**

**7\. Lastly, YOU MUST HAVE A REDDIT OR FANFICTION (and now, Tumblr as well) USERNAME TO BE PICKED FOR A PRIZE.**

* * *

**If you already submitted a survey, PLEASE SUBMIT A NEW ONE; I'd like to give everyone the same advantages, and ONLY THIS TIME WILL THE SURVIVOR AND MURDERER BE GUESSED. **

**I do have to say, a surprising amount of you picked the right subsequent victim and murderer, so props to you on that. If you're confident in your answers, then by all means, put in those same answers.**

**Now that that's settled, _the link to the survey will once again be on my profile page!_ See you in two weeks!**

(If you're having problems finding the link on my profile page, backspace on my username in the url and enter the remaining address)


	4. AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT

**Drumroll please!**

**I am happy to announce the triumphant return of Ten Little Hunters! It's been hard to pick this up writing TLH again after Monty's passing, but it would be foolhardy to completely leave this project entirely.**

**The winner shall be announced at the end of the chapter, but first, dust off your old detective caps, because you've got some more sleuthing to do!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT**

* * *

Jaune stumbled his way through the dark hallway. The lights were inaccessible in this section of the academy, and there were not nearly enough windows to provide practical moonlight to navigate the unfamiliar hall, wherever the hell he was. Jaune tried his best to carefully traverse the shady building, but, with his luck, ran into wall after wall after goddamn wall. His annoyance with himself was only outweighed by the fear that he had pertaining to the current state of affairs.

"At this point I'm not even gonna be surprised if I'm next to die," Jaune grunted, as he ran smack into a pillar. "Owwwww… I'm making this way too easy…"

It wasn't long before he tripped and fell right on his face.

The first thing he noticed was the soft, comfortable texture of the carpet below him. He grasped at it; it felt cool to the touch. Jaune sighed. Perhaps it was an inappropriate time, but he'd never given much thought to the carpet before. He didn't mind lying there, prone to whatever attacks may befall. In fact, if this was his way to go, then this would be a great way to do it – comfortable, unaware, blissfully ignorant of the cold-blooded killer coming to get him…

"No!" Jaune shot up with renewed vigor. "I can't just give up like that! My friends are in danger, and here I am thinking of just kicking back and waiting to be killed. I can't- no. I _won't_ be a burden. Not while I'm still alive!" And with that, he climbed to his feet, Crocea Mors at the ready.

And at that very moment, a tiny light came into view from much farther down the hall.

Jaune's blood ran cold. Could that be it? Could that be the killer? They were still a long ways away from him. He most definitely had time to find a hiding spot. But… should he?

The blonde boy's grip tightened on his sword and shield. "No," he whispered to himself. "I'm gonna tackle this problem head-on." He slowly crept forward, cautious but intrigued. Who could it possibly be?

The light was coming closer. Jaune's heart thumped rapidly in his chest and he could almost hear it. He led with his shield and cocked his arm back, ready for anything. He could even make out the form of the person behind the light. Closer and closer they came-

And he tripped. Again.

Jaune hit the floor with an audible grunt and instantly froze at the sound. His breathing was absolutely still, and now he could hear the approaching footsteps. _Click. Clack. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. CLICK. CLACK._

And then they stopped.

He saw the boots first, planted firmly adjacent to his face. Slowly and shakily, he turned his body to face the now blindingly bright light, which joined at the end of a torch. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he was finally able to perceive the hand holding the torch, the flame-red xiphos that rested loosely in the figure's other hand, and the gentle, concerned emerald eyes behind them.

"Jaune?"

* * *

The dark hallways weren't particularly harrowing for at least one member of the remaining nine.

Blake wandered through a different section of the colossal academy in complete darkness, not that it was a problem at all to her. In fact, she quite preferred it that way. She'd be alerted if anyone was in the vicinity due to their necessity of light to see by. In fact, to her knowledge, the only other person who could traverse complete darkness was-

Blake shuddered. Sun was dead.

She leaned against the nearest wall and slid down into a sitting position. The whole situation seemed like a really bad joke, and Blake couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming. Maybe Sun wasn't dead. Maybe if only she woke up, Sun would be right there with that big, stupid grin of his and everything would be alright.

Suddenly, the lights turned on.

Blake squinted as her eyes readjusted to the abrupt presence of light. Someone had snuck up on her and she hadn't noticed their presence, which made her hair stand on end. Was it the killer? Jumping to her feet she, she began to reach for-

Oh right. She didn't have Gambol Shroud on her.

The faunus girl spun on her feet, warily observing her surroundings. "Show yourself, be you friend or foe!" she shouted, trying to feel braver than she was. Her heart was beating out of her chest, and she was afraid that whoever had happened on her could hear it thumping.

"Take it easy, Blake," a cheery voice rang out, and Blake swiftly turned to see Yang emerging from the shadows. "It's just me."

"Oh. Thank God," said Blake in relief, still poised for attack.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Hold on. You don't think I'm the killer?"

"No," Blake still kept her distance. "If it were you, you'd just punch a guy to death. I don't think you have the patience for poison."

Grinning, Yang replied, "Well, I won't argue with that."

Blake started to let her guard down. "How do you know _I'm _not the killer?"

"Because you're my partner!" Yang beamed. "I trust you. A lot. So call it a hunch, but I don't think you're the killer."

Blake smiled. This was indeed the Yang she knew. "Alright. Fair enough."

Yang walked over and squeezed Blake into a giant bear hug. "I'm so glad you're still alive."

Blake hesitated, still a bit wary, then returned the hug. "Same goes for you. I'm still having trouble registering that Sun is… gone."

Yang smiled sadly. "He was a great guy, if just a bit of idiot. You know that the most out of all of us. The most we can do now is find his killer and prevent anyone else from getting killed."

"Right."

The two broke contact. Blake steeled herself despite her coursing emotions. "What I wouldn't do for a weapon right about now," she joked weakly.

Yang laughed. "Yeah, you've got a bit of a disadvantage right about now. You know what I could use?" Yang stretched. "A nice, warm bath. It'd be great to take my mind off things for moment and clear my head."

"Now's probably not the best time for that," chided Blake. "It would be a bit foolish to relax now when a killer's on the loose."

Yang sighed. "I suppose you're right. Well, where are you heading off to?"

Blake shrugged. "My first priority is finding a weapon. I'm a bit useless against an intuitive serial killer, except maybe for hiding."

"Sounds great," exclaimed Yang. "I'll go with you!"

"NO!" yelled Blake suddenly, surprising Yang. "I mean… no. We have to go our separate ways. If we go separately, the killer will have to work harder to find the both of us, but if we go together, we'll just be lined up like sheep to slaughter. I'm sorry Yang, but... I think this is the best way forward."

Yang seemed hurt for a moment, but then gave Blake a reassuring, albeit saddened, smile. "I understand. It makes sense. I just don't want to see any more of my friends killed, that's all. Especially not you." Yang's expression was uncharacteristically somber. "I think Professor Port had some Grimm traps lying around his classroom, so I'll go see if I can use those. In the meantime, I think there's a fire extinguisher near the commons. I know it's not much, but knowing you, I think you might be able to use it somehow."

Blake nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Stay safe, Yang."

"You too," intoned Yang as she began to walk off. "Oh, and if you manage to find the killer before I do… beat the ever-loving shit outta 'em for me, okay?" The spark of determination manifested Yang's eyes once more.

Blake smiled. "I will."

With that, they set off in opposite directions.

* * *

"Pyrrha?"

Jaune stared at the redhead towering over him. With her xiphos drawn, she was indeed a menacing sight to behold, but her eyes were wrought with concern.

Jaune laughed nervously. "You're not about to kill me, are you?"

"W-what? NO!" Pyrrha jumped back, flushed in the face. "Jaune. I'm not the killer. You believe me, right?"

"Y-yeah. It's just that people don't tend to think straight when someone holding a sword is standing over them and a killer is on the loose." Jaune paused for a moment, then reached his arm out with his pinky extended. "Pinky promise."

Pyrrha giggled and wrapped her own pinky around his. "Pinky promise. Here," she grunted, lifting Jaune back on his feet. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"No, just you," responded Jaune. "You?"

Pyrrha shrugged. "No. Just you."

Jaune nodded slowly. "I… guess that's good?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Pyrrha smiled. "I was wondering, since getting out isn't an option at this point, if you wanted to go off together and see if we can find the killer?"

"You sure you want me along?" Jaune muttered dejectedly. "I don't wanna be the reason you get killed…"

"Jaune," Pyrrha reached a hand for Jaune's shoulder and squeezed. "You're a very capable fighter. I couldn't think of anyone better to guard my back than you."

"You really mean it?"

"With all my heart."

The blonde boy took a deep breath. "Alright," he conceded. "If it's me you need, I'll be here for you."

Pyrrha beamed at him. "Thank you, Jaune." She turned and pointed her torch around. "Now, the question stands: which way should we go?"

"Well…" Jaune observed the lit surroundings. "I came from this way… and you came from there… how about we go down here?" He pointed at an intersecting hallway between the previous two directions.

"I suppose it's something to work with!" With a beckoning of her arm, Pyrrha set off in the unfamiliar hallway, with Jaune in tow.

They walked in silence for a while, looking out for any sudden movements or traps that happened to be lying around. Pyrrha would glance anxiously back every once in a while to make sure Jaune was still okay, and he would return her worried look with an equally uneasy smile. There were so many things that she wanted to say to him, to ask him, but every time she tried to open her mouth, no words would come out, which frustrated her to no end. It only made sense that they were both on edge, but Pyrrha thought that if the killer didn't come and murder her right then and there, then the uncomfortable silence between her and Jaune would end up killing her first.

Eventually, Jaune piped up. "You know, this situation actually feels really familiar."

"How do you mean?"

"You mean you don't see it?" Jaune chuckled. "You and me, and a torch, heading into certain doom? Although of course, it's you holding the torch this time and not me."

Pyrrha paused for a moment and looked at the torch in her hand. "You're right," she murmured softly. "Just like when it was you and me against the Emerald Forest."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess it wasn't one of my finer moments," grumbled Jaune. "Getting tossed by a Death Stalker does not rank high on my list of 'pleasant experiences.' It was more like you _minus_ me against the Emerald Forest…"

Pyrrha laughed, partially at Jaune's silliness, but also in relief. She would probably never admit it - but she was afraid. Listening to Jaune being his usual talkative self as he regaled of days past gave her the chance to be at ease – even if only for a little while.

* * *

Ren wandered through the unnervingly empty commons, with StormFlower in both hands. Usually the large room would be filled with students eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner, talking about how difficult the last class's homework was or gossiping about the successes of the latest missions.

But now only silence befell the commons, one that even made the usually quiet Ren perturbed. He scanned the room and its white-washed walls, its clean floors, its immaculate tables, searching for maybe anything that could help him find-

Ren squinted.

Sitting on one of the tables was a single milkshake.

Slowly, Ren made his way towards it, suspicious of anything that may take advantage of his drawn attention. He reached the milkshake with no trouble, looked around – and sat down on the seat in front of it.

He examined the milkshake. It was spectacularly unremarkable.

Ren lifted the cup to see if there was anything underneath. No cigar.

He set down the milkshake, puzzled. If this was a ruse, it had indeed gotten Ren's attention. Who would be either bold enough or stupid enough to set a trap with a milkshake?

Suddenly, Ren heard a voice.

"You have a milkshake."

Ren peered. Several tables down, he could make out a head of orange hair and turquoise eyes.

He sighed. Of course.

The head grinned.

"And I have a straw."

Nora shifted a moment then pulled out what was indeed a straw.

"There it is, that's a straw, you see? Watch it."

The straw began to inch forward from her position towards Ren. He shook his head at her shenanigans.

"Nora…" he began.

"Now, my straw reaches acroooooooss the room…"

The straw had grown to a ridiculous length (to Ren's surprise) and now hung precariously over the milkshake, in the same way that bricks don't.

"Nora."

"… and starts to drink your milkshake!" The impossibly enormous straw breached the creamy surface of the milkshake.

"Nora…"

"I… drink…"

"_Nora…_"

"… your… MILKSHAKE! _Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp_!"

"NORA!"

A pause. "I don't drink your milkshake?"

Ren sighed. "Nora… what are you doing?" he inquired patiently. "And dare I ask, where did you get a straw that big?"

Nora grinned as she popped out from her hiding spot and danced her way to the dark-haired boy. "You'll never believe what kind of things I found in the kitchen! First of all, we have a milkshake dispenser! ALL THIS TIME AND WE NEVER KNEW! Aaaaaaand there's a ketchup gun, and a mustard gun, and a mayonnaise gun – that one's actually kinda gross – but just imagine what kind of epic food fights we could have! It could be sooooooo awesome!" she sang.

Ren's patience was absolute. "Nora, you _do_ know that there's a killer around, right? It might not be the best idea to just go rummaging through the school kitchen like this."

"I… I know, Ren," Nora flopped down in the seat next to Ren, the mirthfulness gone from her face. "It's just that… well… I'm scared, Ren. Someone is out to get us all, and all I can think of is how much I wished this was all over."

She shuddered. "The fact of the matter is, one of us is already gone, and I don't want to come out of here and see all my friends… dead. I couldn't take it. Picturing Sun's body makes me want to…" she trailed off. "I can't. I think… I think I'm just gonna stay here and lay low. For now."

Ren cupped Nora's cheek. "I understand. I think that's a great idea, too. With all these tables and those things you found in the kitchen, I think you could set up a pretty solid stronghold here."

Nora perked up. "You… you think so?"

Ren smiled. "Of course I do. I haven't ever seen any obstacle stop you before."

"Yeah!" Nora smiled back. "Oh, I'll make the best fort you've ever seen, Ren! In fact, it'll be an impenetrable castle, and no one will be able to get past my defense!"

"And you can be the queen," assured Ren, patting Nora on the head.

"The queen of the castle?"

"Yes. You're the queen of the castle."

Nora beamed. "I'd make a great queen." She grew somber again. "What about you? Are you gonna stay and help."

Ren hung his head. "No. I'm afraid not. After all, my queen doesn't want to find her friends dead, so I think I should go out and bring them back to the castle."

Grinning, Nora exclaimed, "I think that's a wonderful idea! I'll start building the castle, and you can bring back our friends safe and sound!"

Ren nodded, and started to walk out of the commons.

"Oh!" Nora called, causing Ren to pause briefly. "Ren… please promise me that you'll come back safely."

Ren glanced at his uncharacteristically serious best friend.

"I promise."

* * *

Although he had visited the academy many times, Neptune couldn't really say that he was familiar with the layout of the school.

In fact, was lost.

If "loster" was a word, it would describe Neptune very accurately in comparison to the other eight hunters roaming around Beacon.

If "lostest" was a word, it would probably be more befitting of a title for the one fly that accidentally flies into a plane with an overseas flight, remains stuck in the plane for the entire duration of the flight, and emerges from the plane some thirty-odd hours later utterly dazed and confused while on the exact opposite side of the planet, only to be eaten by a voracious and absolutely apathetic lizard before the fly can even make sense of its whereabouts. But Neptune came in at a fairly close second.

Regardless, Neptune walked. There was nothing else he could really do.

His number one priority at this point was finding Weiss. In her inebriated state, it was likely for her to be likely prey for the killer, not to mention that she didn't have a weapon either.

"Dammit," muttered Neptune, walking cautiously through the school. "I need to find a weapon, too."

Luckily enough, he soon got his lucky break.

The lights were functional all the way down the hall he was in, and illuminated a room that Neptune was, contrary to popular belief, very familiar with.

"The combat arenas!" Neptune exclaimed. "Finally, something to work with. There should be weapons nearby."

He headed into the storage room next to it to look for potential weapons to use. He rummaged past some practice weapons, a few training robots, a few combat monitors, but nothing to Neptune's liking.

"I can't work with this stuff," he grumbled. "It's got no form of elegance! I might as well be waving a dead twig around, and I'm not going out like a pleb!"

He wrestled past the clutter, reaching the back of the room – and his blood ran cold.

Only a lone training dummy stood in the open back area of the room. Tied firmly to the dummy, to Neptune's horror, was a barely conscious Weiss.

"Weiss!" Without a second thought, Neptune rushed over towards the immobile girl and struggled to untie the ropes binding her to the dummy. "Hold on, Weiss," he whispered softly. "I'm gonna get you out of here."

Weiss slowly opened her eyes. "Neptune…?" she mumbled, her voice dry and cracking from disuse. "Wha… what are you… how did I get here? Why am I tied up?"

"Shhhh," Neptune placed a finger to her lips. "Just relax, and we'll figure this out together."

"Neptune…" she groaned. Little alcohol remained in her system at this point, and soon she was just short of alertness. "You… you came for me."

Neptune smiled. "Yeah. Of course I'd come back for you, snow angel."

Weiss giggled. "Shush, you." Her expression grew serious. "What happened since… since I was out, I suppose?"

"Nothing much." Neptune grunted with an effort, as the ropes were proving much more difficult to work with than he had anticipated. "The killer's still loose, and most everyone's probably alive – for the time being."

"Oh." Weiss straightened up. "Then we must get out of here as soon as we can. We must go find any open exits we can."

Neptune raised an eyebrow. "What about the plan to track down the killer?"

Weiss looked him straight in the eye. "That plan has been rendered obsolete, now that we are all spread out. If we encounter anyone along the way, we can help out as much as we possibly can, but I truly believe we'll be the most help if we can contact authorities. We are not as effective as we can be, currently. Neither of us have weapons, so I refuse to be killed when I know that I had the chance to do something smart." She lifted her chin regally. "It would be foolhardy of us to charge the killer unarmed."

"That makes sense," Neptune mused. "Aha!" He pulled the ropes away triumphantly at last.

Weiss groaned and rubbed her arms, trying to send the blood and feeling back into them. "Thank you, Neptune. I owe you my life."

Neptune chuckled. "Let's get out of here first so that it doesn't go to waste." Weiss shot him a glare. "Sorry. That was in bad taste, wasn't it?"

"Very."

"Alright," Neptune sighed. "You go on ahead; we can't stay still for long with a killer after us. I'll try to find a weapon here and catch up with you."

Weiss shook her head indignantly. "No! I'm not leaving you behind."

Neptune grabbed her shoulders firmly. "You have to. One of us has to make it out alive. This betters our chance. Listen, if I don't catch up to you in the next ten minutes, just know that I… just get yourself out alive, okay?"

"No…" Tears began to fall down Weiss's face, her eyes widening at Neptune's words. "Why would you say that…"

"You said it yourself. No sense in being stupid. I… I love you, Weiss. Please. Make it out alive. For me. Now go."

"But-"

"_Go._"

Weiss took the hint of tenseness in Neptune's voice. She nodded faintly.

"I love you, too."

And she ran out of the room.

Neptune watched her go. He sat in the same spot for a few minutes. Then he began to speak aloud.

"Weiss is still a little buzzed. She didn't see you come in." Neptune turned. "But I did."

He sighed. "Although I suppose wonder why you let her go?"

Silence.

"I guess you have some mercy in you after all. At least Weiss will be safe now."

Neptune smiled. "That's all I need to know. Thank you."

He heard a click, and slowly the barrel of Gambol Shroud's pistol form came into view as it came to a stop right between Neptune's eyes.

_BANG!_

The assailant wiped the weapon's smoking barrel, before stepping over the slumped body as it rapidly submerged in the growing pool of blood, and exited the room.

* * *

_**One died for their lover and then there were eight.**_

* * *

**So, did you think it was gonna be who it was gonna be being killed by what you thought was gonna kill them?**

**If you didn't (or if you think your survivor and killer weren't who you thought they were) don't fret! You've still got plenty of chances to win meager ol' fanfic prompts from me... okay, that doesn't sound quite as good spoken aloud. But every now and again, I'll try my best to throw in a more substantial prize, so be on the lookout for that!**

**The following person wins a fanfic written by me to whatever parameters he or she would like (remember, no smut):**

**captinmet! Congratulations for being the only person to guess the correct victim AND weapon! I'll PM you for your prompt and such, so check your reddit mail!**

**Almost half of you guessed the correct victim, so good job on that! In contrast, only 10 percent of everyone guessed the right murder weapon, which is understandable - you didn't have a lot to go on for that.**

**Just a little word of advice, a lot of people seem to think that it's entirely possible for the killer, survivor, and next victim to be all the same person. I'm not sure how you came up with that, but be aware that every single role is played out by a different person. There are 10 roles, and there are (or were) 10 participants. It should line up quite nicely that way.**

**Also, in case you missed it in the notice, I mentioned that a weapon can only be a viable answer if it has been mentioned prior to chapter's killing. That should help narrow down your list of weapons to chose from.**

**Lastly, I've opened up the surveys to accept Tumblr usernames as well, in case that's more convenient for you.**

**The next case should be a little bit easier, at least in my opinion.**

_**To refresh on the rules, check the Notice 2 in the chapters.**_

_**To refresh on the riddle, participants, and weapons, check the Riddle in the chapters.**_

_**To take up the next survey, click the link on my profile!**_

**Get crackin'!**


	5. AND THEN THERE WERE SEVEN

**Welcome back to another exciting installment of TLH!**

**I apologize for the tardiness. I've had a lot of projects I've been working on recently, not to mention that I ran into quite the writer's block for this chapter.**

**But anyways, let's get going, shall we?**

* * *

**Chapter 3: AND THEN THERE WERE SEVEN**

* * *

The phrase "as quiet as a mouse" originated in the early sixteenth century. Mice are quite the quiet creatures, and most usually, their activities are unknown to the people whose properties they reside in until it is far too late. Plagues came and went with mice, as their quietness allowed them to sneak in places you would least expect them to be. Some scholars even say that if there ever were such a creature as a mouse Grimm, the whole of Remnant would be royally fucked.

Another common, although more obsolete, variation of this phrase is "as quiet as a church mouse." One could assume that this was because the churches of old were usually very quiet places and that to even think about escaping the sermons without drawing attention, or even the presence of God, you'd probably have to be a church mouse. With time, however, this variation became more and more unused due to the remarkably discreet conversion of church mice to Christianity in the late eighteenth century, and with the introduction of the modern form of church and worship, church mice can now be seen participating actively in gospel choirs.

Most of these thoughts did not cross Ruby's mind as she tiptoed down the halls of Beacon, except probably the part about being quiet as a mouse.

She was not particularly good at it, if you were wondering.

"Aha!" exclaimed Ruby, as she opened the nearest classroom door, scythe in hand, ready for an attacker to come flailing out of the room.

As expected, there was no one there.

It is, however, amusing to entertain the thought that, had the killer actually been hiding in this particular room, and Ruby had killed him or her, this story would have ended about as abruptly as The Sopranos did.

But alas, we continue.

"Well, crap," sighed Ruby.

A brief examination of the room revealed a maze of standing mirrors, arranged with no rhyme or reason to placement.

"Oooooh," marveled Ruby. "This must be that second-year training exercise Velvet was talking about."

She slowly closed the door and turned…

… only to catch her cape in the door hinges.

"Well…" Ruby groaned, attempting to wrench free her signature article of cloth. "Crap… again."

Of course, that only served to get Ruby's cape even more tangled in the hinges.

It is a fairly common occurrence for one to run into even more and more trouble the more of a hurry that they are in, and seeing as Ruby was in very much a hurry to find and apprehend a murderer, it was only natural that such misfortune fell upon her.

After about five minutes of struggling, Ruby panted and observed her surroundings in hope that something – or someone nearby could help her.

Her saving grace came in the form of a very amused looking Lie Ren.

"Need a little help there, Ruby?"

"No!" pouted Ruby, indignant of the smirk that currently occupied Ren's face. "Maybe… yeah, I kinda need help…"

"Thought so." With that, Ren pulled out one of his StormFlowers and set it against a section of Ruby's cape.

This did not go over well with the redhead.

"_WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"_

Ren jumped in surprise at Ruby's outburst. "Uh… cutting you loose?"

"Butbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbutbut…" Ruby was almost whimpering at this point.

The dark-haired hunter's brow furrowed. "But… what?"

"My… cape…" Ruby moaned.

Ren blinked.

"You can't be serious."

Ruby continued to give him her best puppy dog eyes.

"… Wow. You _are_ serious." Ren pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Please don't cut the cape," Ruby begged.

The dark-haired hunter sighed. "You _know_ that it's only just going to get caught in things over and over again, right?"

"No it won't!"

"Right… how the hell did it get stuck in a door hinge, out of all things?"

Ruby grumbled. "Things… happen. Don't judge me… please."

Ren couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry about it. I'm much more worried about finding this killer and stopping him or her before they can kill anyone else."

He paused for a moment. "So… you _sure_ you don't want me to cut your cape off?"

Ruby sniffed. "Not if you can avoid it."

"Alright."

And with that, Ren got to work. The more he tried to unfurl the cape from the door's clutches, the more he realized how absurdly tight the cloak was wound up in the hinges.

After a good five minutes of struggling from the both of them, Ren finally yanked Ruby's cloak free, and they tumbled to the floor, heaving from the effort.

"That was… a lot harder… than I thought it would be," breathed Ren.

"Told you so," muttered Ruby. She climbed to her feet. "Alright, where to now?"

"Well…" Ren got up as well and brushed himself off. "I'm going to go after the killer. I can't tell you what to do, but Nora's setting up a fort in the commons, so that might be a good place for you to head."

"A… fort?" Ruby frowned, puzzled. "Like a pillow fort?"

"… Yes. Because the commons is full of pillows."

"Oh… right. Silly me," Ruby laughed nervously. "I guess I'll head over there, then! See ya later, Ren!"

Ren smiled in return. "See you, Ruby."

They both headed off in opposite directions.

* * *

"Well… guess I'm just… 'Yanging' out by myself!"

Yang's audience of no one gave her pun the proper response of silence.

She sighed. "Guess they can't all be winners," she murmured morosely.

Yang wandered down the halls lugging around a few razor-sharp foot traps with the intention of placing them around the school and hopefully trapping a cold-blooded killer successfully.

Up ahead, the commons loomed in the background.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Perfect trapping grounds."

As the view of the large eating area became clearer, however, Yang's jaw dropped, and for good reason, too.

Standing up against the back wall was an enormous and rather sturdy-looking fort made of tables, chairs, and other large kitchen appliances. The fort barely touched the commons' high ceiling, and it was as wide as it was tall, enough to fit a small platoon of soldiers, if need be.

In short, it looked like if Frank Lloyd Wright decided put his own spin on recreating the Taj Mahal with only materials he had found in the dumpster.

Which, in its own right, is a pretty fucking impressive image.

Yang whistled.

"Whoever built this must've had a lot of… fortitude," she murmured.

Crickets chirped almost unwillingly in the background.

Yang groaned. "This is so much better when people are actually around to hear my puns…"

As if on cue, a large glass bowl with the concave side facing outward rose from the middle tier of the fort, and a large, magnified grinning face appeared on the surface of the bowl.

"WHO APPROACHES THE CASTLE OF QUEEN NORA?" boomed the face.

Yang blinked.

"You really took this 'queen of the castle' thing to the next level, huh Nora?" she mused.

"INCONCEIVABLE! THAT IS 'QUEEN NORA' TO THEE!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Nora, it's just me, Yang."

Nora shrugged from behind the glass bowl. "Well, what if you're the killer?" Her eyes widened. "Uh… I mean… INCONCEIVABLE! WHAT IF THOU ART THE KILLER? THOU MUST PROVE THEE WORTHY OF QUEEN NORA."

"'Worthy,' huh?" Yang grinned. "Sounds like a challenge if you ask me!"

With that, she began to scale the wall of tables.

In all reasonability, Nora began to panic. "W-wait, what are doing? Uh, I mean… INCONCEIVABLE!"

Yang continued her ascent upward, a manic grin painted on her face.

"Uh… TAKE THAT, FOUL HEATHEN!" Nora squatted down to kick out the chair that Yang was currently grasping on to.

She lost her grip for a slight moment, but with her quick reflexes, immediately reached out to the closest table and hung on tightly to steady herself.

Nora squinted. "She didn't fall? INCONCEIVABLE!"

"You keep saying that word," Yang retorted back. "I don't think it means what you think it means."

Nora growled. "You stay away, maybe-or-maybe-not killer!"

Yang sighed. "Look, Nora, I promise I'm not the killer. I'm obviously not a sneaky person, so I don't have the tenacity to stab all these people –" She winced. "- my… _friends_… behind their backs. I couldn't. I _wouldn't_."

Nora hesitated, dropping the 'queen' visage for a moment. "I… guess I can understand. I mean, I couldn't pull that kind of thing off either. Plus, look at me now! I'm just… hiding. Ain't that pathetic…?"

The blonde offered an assuring smile. "I think it's a brilliant idea, Nora. Really! It's a pretty impressive fort, I think!"

"Maybe…" Nora returned the smile coyly. "Thanks, Yang."

"Sure!" Yang beamed, then, with raised eyebrow, "Does that mean… the tables have turned?"

"The tables have…? Oh, the tables!" Yang could literally see the lightbulb turn on in the ginger's eyes. "I get it!"

"Finally!" Yang sighed in relief. "It's awesome to have feedback for once. Hey listen, I got all these foot traps from Port's classroom, and I think they would make a great defensive barrier for the fort. There's definitely more from where that came from, so I can go back and get them. What say you?"

Nora grinned brightly. "Now _that_ is a brilliant idea!"

She cleared her throat resumed her façade of royalty. "Yang, I hereby pronounce thee chief knight of Fort Nora! Now fetch me these trap thou speaketh of!"

And in a flash, she disappeared back into the fort.

"Wait wait wait, chief what?"

Yang blinked.

"Did I just climb this entire way up the fort just to be made into an errand girl?" she murmured under her breath. "Maybe I should usurp this weird-ass kingdom…"

She sighed. "But first things first! More traps!"

Yang jumped and landed carefully on her feet before setting out once more into the darkness of Beacon.

* * *

Blake peeked around the corner, her ears twitching.

Nothing.

"Okay…" she murmured to herself, and the cat faunus creeped from out of her hiding spot… brandishing a fire extinguisher.

Sure, it definitely wasn't the best weapon to combat a serial killer, especially considering that Blake found bashing anyone over the head was probably the most barbaric form of combat ever – _don't tell Yang that_ – but it would simply have to do. It certainly helped that the extinguisher was dust-based.

Blake made a mental note to test exactly what kind of dust the extinguisher consisted of on something. Preferably not on herself.

As she tip-toed through the dimly lit hall, she ran the possibilities of the possible types of dust that could "legally" be placed in a fire extinguisher designated for school use. The first and most basic dust that came to mind was ice dust, although Blake quickly dismissed it due to the bulky residue left behind by the ice crystals that sprouted upon use. Dust ice melted rather slowly, and it was a bitch to clean otherwise – being teammates with Weiss definitely taught her that.

The second dust that came to mind was sediment dust, which seemed even less proficient than a simple bucket of water. In fact, that was usually the process most people went through upon killing fires with a sediment dust extinguisher: attempting to use it to smother the fire, failing spectacularly, resorting to buckets of water until the job was done, and finally returning to the store of purchase and beating the unfortunate cashier who just happened to be on shift over the head with the obsolete extinguisher until death. Of course, such situations were vaguely described in the warning label, but nobody ever reads the fine print.

The third option – and perhaps the most ridiculously dangerous (and arguably most effective) – was the air-based concussive dust, which, upon use, released a strong shockwave that hit with the force of about ten airbags. Of course, the law of equal and opposite reactions still applied, much to the chagrin of its customers, who suddenly found themselves lying in the neighbor's front lawn after extinguishing a mere stove fire, but in all fairness, it was quick, efficient, and it got the job done.

Blake sighed. Knowing the headmaster's eccentricities, the extinguisher was probably the third option.

Suddenly, she heard movement.

It sounded like running.

Blake readied the extinguisher and hugged closely to the wall, walking as slowly and noiselessly as possible.

The footsteps came closer.

Blake took a deep breath in.

Closer still.

Breathe out. Blake looked at the extinguisher. It was now or never.

Even close – oh wait, the running was coming from behind her.

Blake turned around swiftly – and came face-to-face with and very flustered Weiss.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

They both yelped in surprise, and in her panic, Blake accidentally pressed the extinguisher's trigger.

_KABOOOOOM!_

For a moment, Weiss stood in front of her, a look of shock on her face; the next moment, all Blake could see was the ceiling as she felt herself getting launched a good thirty feet away from the blast zone.

This was going to hurt.

"Ooooof!" she grunted as she skidded across the hall floor, tumbling ungracefully to a stop. On the other end of the hall, she could hear Weiss do the same.

They both lay motionless for a few seconds, desperately trying to regain the air that had been knocked out of them. Then, before Blake could, apologize, Weiss scrambled to her feet and started to do what Weiss did best.

"YOU MORON!" Weiss seethed, pointing an accusing finger at Blake. "There's a killer on the loose and you decide to be reckless and go all willy-nilly with that stupid oversized dust canister!? What is _wrong_ with you!?"

"Weiss, I'm sorry…" Blake mumbled, but the heiress wasn't having it.

"And _you_, out of all people! I expected better from you, Blake!" Weiss crossed her arms condescendingly. "I can't believe you could be so _stupid…_ oh."

A look of realization dawned on her face.

"Wait a minute… it's YOU! You're the killer!" Weiss screamed angrily. "I should've known all along…"

"NO, _what!?_" It was Blake's turn to be indignant, as she climbed to her feet and swiftly approached the heiress. "I'm not the killer! Why would I even remotely _want_ to do anything as horrible as this?"

Weiss's eyes narrowed, pointing at the cat faunus once more. "_You're_ the only one who's been part of an extremist terrorist group! I see it now… your old ways have finally caught up to you. You've already killed two of us and here you were trying to kill me too!"

"Weiss, that's crazy talk and you know it!" growled Blake. "I would never do any such – wait." She blinked, trying to process what Weiss had just said. "What do you mean, 'already killed two of us?'"

The heiress grew significantly somber, and her head hung low.

"Neptune… he told me… that if he didn't come back for me in ten minutes… he said to just keep running, to get help." She looked up at Blake, and although her face retained its angry edge, tears had started to stream down her face. "It's been thirty minutes. Thirty. Fucking. Minutes!" She choked out the last word behind her sobs.

Blake tried to reach out and comfort her. "Weiss… I didn't know. I'm so sorry –"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" screamed the heiress, backing away.

Blake recoiled. "Weiss…?"

The heiress's vitriol had returned in full force. "I don't have my weapon with me right now, because if I did, I would cut you down like the filthy fucking animal that you are! But once I get out of here, I will call the authorities, and they will arrest you for killing my friends, and they will lock you up in a cage far away from us all, _where you belong."_

The animalistic insults were not lost on Blake, and hairs on her neck bristled. "Weiss! Stop spewing all this bullshit! You can't just –"

"Oh, I can and I will!" Weiss spat darkly. "I'm horrified I let you get as close to me as you did… I should have listened to father all these years ago. 'Once a criminal, always a criminal.' That's who you are, Blake!"

"Weiss, please listen to me –"

"NO! We're done here, you and I."

With that, Weiss walked off in the opposite direction, leaving Blake to stand in the hallway alone with the heiress's biting words ringing in her head.

"_Once a criminal, always a criminal…"_

* * *

Yang whistled as she strode down the hall towards Professor Port's classroom. The halls seemed peaceful enough, but you could never be too careful when a serial killer is in the same building as you.

But of course, this was Yang. Yang was not a careful person to begin with.

One thing that she was, though, was cocky.

"Man, that killer's got something fierce coming for 'em. Just wait until I get my hands on those traps for our little cat-and-mouse game…"

Speaking of mice…

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGG!"

The blonde saw a blur or red rose petals, and next thing she knew, Ruby was locked in deep embrace with her.

"Ohmygodyangivebeenlookingalloverforyouandnowifinallyfoundyoutheresakilleroutthereandidontknowwhattodoigotmycapestuckanditwassoembarrasingwereyouplayingagamejustnoworsomethingwasitremnantbecauseilltotallykickyouassthistimeiswear –"

"Easy, easy, lil' sis!" laughed Yang, returning the hug. "I'm really glad to see you safe and sound, y'know."

"Same!" Ruby chirped happily. "So… what are you doing right now?"

"Getting some traps from Port's. Nora set up a pretty impressive fortress in the commons, and we're gonna set up our defenses there… after I usurp the queen, but that's just all in a day's work!" Yang grinned.

"Oh right! Ren was telling me about that fort," Ruby nodded. "Sounds like a plan! Lemme help out!"

Yang pondered a bit. "There _are _a lot of traps in that room. Sure, c'mon, Rubes!"

"Yay!" cheered the redhead.

They reached Port's room quite shortly afterwards and found the traps stored neatly in the classrooms closet, among a few other Grimm-hunting materials.

"Just what the doctor ordered!" exclaimed Yang happily. "Hey Rubes, I'm gonna check Port's office to see if there's anything of value there. Holler if ya need me, alright?"

"Sure thing, sis!" Ruby beamed.

Yang walked across the hallway to Port's office – and found the door locked.

"Nothing a little firepower couldn't handle," murmured the blonde, and with Ember Celica, she punched a gaping whole into the area where the doorknob used to be.

Pushing the door open, Yang found the usual suspects of items: a desk, all the books and writing utensils that came with a desk, a map of Remnant, several portraits of Port lining the walls – Yang noticed that he seemed more muscular and toned in the paintings than he did in real life – and of course, his prized blunderbuss-axe, Charybdis.

The thing that completely took her by surprise, however, was the hot tub.

Yang blinked.

"Why the hell would anyone keep hot tub in their office, out of all places… no, scratch that, I don't even want to know…" Yang muttered, desperately trying to rid herself of the unfortunate mental images that had formed in her brain.

The more important question that subsequently formed was: "Why is it full?"

It was as if someone had wanted to take a bath, filled it up to the brim with water, and decided to change their mind and walk away.

Yang moved closer towards the tub and peered in.

At the bottom of the tub was a note that simply read, _"I sea you."_

"Oh," Yang chuckled. "That's pretty funny…"

Suddenly, she felt a hand dunk her head into the water.

"Mmmph!" Yang struggled against the force, but it must have been at such a vantage point that Yang's flailing did not come in contact with any flesh at all.

More so, the hand restraining her was not inflicting any particular pain, so her semblance was effectively nullified.

She mistakenly tried to gasp – and instantly filled her lungs with water.

Yang coughed and choked, trying desperately to rid herself of foreign liquids, but water kept rushing in.

She could feel herself becoming weaker as she began to succumb. Her vision became tunneled, her lungs stopped burning, and her thoughts became muddier and muddier.

The last thing she remembered thinking before everything went black was: _"I've got a sinking feeling about this…"_

* * *

_**A light was snuffed out and then there were seven.**_

* * *

**Another successful round of TLH in the books! I feel writing got a bit sloppy there near the middle, but we pulled through!**

**We had three people who guessed the correct answers this week. However, we can only have one winner, and after a bit of random shuffling, our victor supreme is… ****scot911!**** Congratulations on winning fanfic prompt from me! I'll contact you in a bit for the details.**

**An overwhelming 50% of you guessed the correct victim, out of the 15 who submitted. However, most of you picked the fire extinguisher over the bathtub. Sometimes it really **_**does**_** come down to luck, but any tip in the right direction can help you make a better guess.**

**This next one's an interesting one. I'm very excited to see what you guys pick.**

_**To refresh on the rules, check the Notice 2 in the chapters.**_

_**To refresh on the riddle, participants, and weapons, check the Riddle in the chapters.**_

_**To take up the next survey, click the link on my profile!**_

**I bid you good luck!**


	6. AND THEN THERE WERE SIX

**We are back!**

**Late again, my apologies, but here's the next installment of TLH! More info later, but for now, let's dive in!**

**Oh, and also, potential trigger warning. Be careful of that.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: AND THEN THERE WERE SIX**

* * *

"Can't believe I'm saying this… but I'm bored."

Nora sat in the "comfort" of her fort, her surroundings only illuminated by a spare flashlight.

"And Ren and Yang went back out into danger like fools, thinking I was scared and pathetic and whatnot. Incredible… some of my worst performances of my career and they never doubted it for a second."

She leaned back and lay sprawled on the floor, hands behind her head.

"Although I could go back out there and face the music. Confront whatever's going on around here. It might be a little fun, actually… But how can I possibly be expected to handle a murder mystery on a day like this?"

Nora sighed. "This is the fourth hour since the whole damn thing started. It's pretty tough coming up with different things to be afraid about. If I go for the whole night, I'm probably going to have to just pretend to be comatose from fear, so I should make my time here count."

Grinning, Nora continued her soliloquy.

"The key to faking out the friends is holding yourself like you're cold. It's a good non-specific reaction; I'm a big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you that a good phony scare is a fake cold sweat, but, uh... you get a nervous best friend like Ren, you could wind up with him thinking you've got a fever and fretting over you. That's worse than a murder mystery. You fake a being scared, and when you're crying for mommy, you shiver a bit. It's a little childish and stupid, but then, so is murder."

She frowned. "I _am _a little bit nervous, that's wasn't bullshit. Hell, it sure beats the exams we just took, especially that Vacuoan Socialism exam. I mean, really, what's the point? I'm not Vacuoan. I don't plan on being Vacuoan. So who gives a crap if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists, it still doesn't change the fact that there's some guy – or girl, not judging – just running around killing errbody."

Nora shrugged and stood up, skipping around the huge space inside the fort. The dim lighting made her glee look slightly more like insanity.

Which was fitting, seeing how she was talking to herself. Or, from a different perspective, perhaps, to you and I.

"Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote the raven: 'Nevermore-' oh wait, that's not right… ahem. I quote General Ironwood: "I don't believe in Ozpin, I believe in me." Good point. After all, his army _did_ save Vale from being overrun by Grimm. I mean, so did I, but I still can't make pancakes to save my life."

She whirled in a cutesy little pirouette. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the front of the fort, and her blood froze cold.

"H-hello…?" she murmured meekly.

A chair from the fort wall was shoved out of the way, and light shone through the hole in the fort, as well as Ren's impassive face. "Were you just misquoting 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' just now?"

"Uh… maybe…?" Nora grinned sheepishly.

Ren shook his head. "There's a murderer on the loose, and all you can do is make movie and literary quotes?"

"Yup!"

Ren sighed. "Alright. I'll see if I can find anybody else. You hang tight, alright?" With that, he set off again.

Nora shrugged and turned her head slightly with a wink. "While I might agree with Ren a bit on that, I'm pretty sure the writer's just going to keep using me as a cop-out to stretch his artistic prowess over the readers. After all, he sure uses the word 'philistine' a lot, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know what it means. What a dickhead."

* * *

Blake meandered aimlessly past classroom after classroom, with Weiss's words still weighing quite heavily on her mind. As much as she didn't want to admit it, they bothered her a hell of a lot more than she was inclined to admit.

The cat faunus flinched and tried to shake herself free from her thoughts. The words kept repeating in her head, no matter how hard she tried to block them out, to the point where her whole stream of consciousness was experiencing a mental tunnel vision. All other thoughts about killers and riddles were drowned out as Weiss's biting affronts pounded Blake's mind again and again…

_I would cut you down like the filthy fucking animal that you are… They will arrest you for killing my friends, and they will lock you up in a cage far away from us all, where you belong… Once a criminal, always a criminal…_

A huge pressure suddenly weighed on Blake's chest, and she gasped in pain, falling to her knees. She clenched her fingers as the hall began to spin, and she keeled over to try to keep herself from growing even more nauseous, but to no avail.

She tried to clutch at the floor, the carpet, anything to make the chest crushing pain go away, but there was nothing in grasp – the fire extinguisher had rolled out of reach as soon as she had collapsed. Her breathing ran ragged, and it took all she had to fill her lungs with air, but doing so just made her chest hurt even more.

It was as if her heart was trying to escape her chest cavity, and all she could do was curl into a quivering, moaning ball and pray.

"Am I… going… to die?"

At last, when she thought she couldn't bear it anymore, her heart slowed to a more manageable pace, and suddenly she could breathe freely again, to which she greedily filled her lungs in relief.

As the room ceased to move and her vision came back to normal, she realized with a start that she was drenched in perspiration. The carpet floor had drained most of it, but there had been enough that she could feel the cold, wet carpet against her skin as she lay on her side, trying to get a grip on what had just happened to her.

She remained in a fetal position; for how long, Blake knew not. The cold sweat made her shiver as it dripped down her face, and her thoughts raced at a thousand miles per hour, such so that it would've been impossible for her to form a coherent sentence at the current moment.

She shut her eyes, hoping some form of sensory deprivation would slow her mind down and allow her to think, if just for a little bit.

The first intelligible word that formed came to her in the form of Ruby's voice.

It was her name, spoken softly and waveringly.

"Blake…?"

It took the cat faunus a few seconds to realize that the voice was coming from an external source.

She opened her eyes.

Ruby was kneeled in front of Blake, concern and worry etched on her face.

What caught Blake's eye was that all that concern and worry was shrouded by absolute despair.

It seemed as if Ruby had been crying. Hard.

"R-Ruby?" Blake's voice was hoarse from disuse, and she pulled herself into a sitting position with much effort.

"You look like you've been through hell," murmured Ruby.

"I could say the same for you," Blake replied. "What's wrong? Well, besides the obvious."

"I… I found…" Ruby lowered her head, her voice cracking. "They got Yang," she said quietly, almost in a whisper.

Blake's eyes widened, and she suddenly felt weak again. "No. No way. They couldn't… how? Yang wouldn't… she wouldn't go down that easily…"

The redhead was unable to form a response. Instead, tears streamed down her face as she sobbed silently.

The cat faunus felt own tears began to well up, and she did the only thing that seemed appropriate.

She embraced Ruby.

That simple gesture was enough to set the waterworks off.

Ruby cried. She cried and cried, buried into Blake's shoulder as they held each other close.

And Blake could do nothing else but cry, too.

First Sun, then Neptune… and then the person she had grown the closest to over the last year. Gone, in the blink of an eye.

When would this wicked game ever end?

* * *

There are a lot of things to be said about being tall as a human being. In a lot of cultures, it was sometimes likened to represent a person's power; in fact, until women began wearing them, high heels were specifically designed for men to boost their stature and air of importance (and, unlike the tidbit about the church mice, this is, in fact, actually not complete bullshit).

The argument did arise, however, that being a tall peasant did not bring you any such power. You were just the person who could get the pots off of the top shelf, and once stools were invented, no one gave a shit about how tall you were. You might even be called a freak for being so goddamn tall. Freak.

Suffice to say, Weiss was neither a freak (arguably) or a peasant. In fact, the only problem she had regarding height was that her own height was inversely correlated to her power, which, with all efforts currently focused on the serial killer at bay as opposed to the working conditions of Schnee Dust Company employees, meant absolutely nothing.

The relevance of the previous paragraphs was not in vain, however, for Weiss currently found herself wishing for a stool.

The window she was trying to break was simply too high up for her.

But, stubbornly, she kept jumping and trying to land a blow on the window with her bare fists.

Both very stupid ideas, to be sure.

But you tend to make stupid ideas in the midst of a murderer.

Weiss tried. And she tried again. And again once more.

Each attempt was almost shrugged off by a very uncaring window.

Weiss growled impatiently, her temper reaching a boiling point.

She prepared herself for another jump…

"What are you doing?"

The sudden voice startled the heiress, skewing the trajectory of her jump, and she landed flat on her bum with a yelp.

"Couldn't you give me anymore warning than that?" Weiss grumbled.

"My apologies." Ren strolled over to her from out of the shadows. "It's just that… that was quite the amusing sight to behold. I was a bit puzzled as to what it was you were doing."

"What do _you_ think?" Weiss narrowed her eyes. "I'm trying to escape!"

"By… hitting it with your fists?" Ren raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a singer? Why don't you try to shatter it with your voice?"

"Don't patronize me, Ren," snarled the heiress. "I'm going to get to the authorities, explain to them of our current situation, and tell them who the killer is!"

"Oh?" Ren raised an eyebrow. "You know who the killer is?"

"I do." Weiss folded her arms triumphantly. "It's Blake, obviously."

"Oh… okay." The dark-haired boy frowned. "Not who I would've expected, but do go on."

"Oh, I will!" Weiss proclaimed. "After all, she's the only one of us with a background in a terrorist organization, so there's your dead giveaway! Plus, she's sneaky, she's very smart… I can't think of anyone else who would commit such an atrocity!"

"You'd be surprised," murmured Ren. "For what it's worth, I don't think Blake is someone who has any reason to kill anybody here. Sure, she was a criminal, but she was specifically a non-violent criminal. I can't see that kind of change happening in her so quickly, or anyone, for that matter."

Weiss hmphed arrogantly. "So that's it? You're going to throw away our one good lead because you think that they would never kill anyone? Fine. Go do… whatever it is that you were doing. I'm going to get out of this God-forsaken place, just you watch me!"

"I'd rather not," responded Ren, his expression unchanging. "At this rate, you'll have to wait a few years to grow another couple inches before you actually reach that window, and by then, you'll probably have starved to death. So sorry, but I've got better things to do, and if you're going to run away instead, be my guest."

Ren set off down the hallway, and Weiss glared after him.

"I don't need your help anyway," she muttered under her breath, before turning back to the window above her, preparing to jump once more…

Or maybe not.

Weiss sighed.

"There has got to be a shorter window." With that, she stomped off impatiently, unaware that every window in Beacon was probably taller than her.

It was going to be a long evening for the heiress.

* * *

"And remember that time Yang punched through a giant robot like it was nothing?" Ruby laughed melancholically.

"Yes, Ruby. Of course I do," smiled Blake in return, although she was quite certain that it came out looking like a grimace instead.

The two were sat against the school walls, with no tears left to cry. Instead, they reminisced about the person she was and the memories they had of her.

It was the best they could do to cope with the loss of a teammate. A friend. A motherly figure, when there was none otherwise.

"Right," Ruby sniffed. "I just… I can't believe that she's… well… actually gone."

Blake did not trust herself to speak and smiled instead; for behind that smile, her own crippling doubts coupled with sudden shock of Yang's death threatened to attack her once more.

The red-haired girl heaved a shuddering sigh and she slowly but steadily rose to her feet, forcing back the creeping feeling of anguish back down her throat. "There's no use just standing around. Yang would be furious if we just sat here and moped over her. We've got to go do something about this… for her."

Ruby reached out a hand to help Blake up, which the cat faunus gladly accepted.

"So… what do we do?" Blake inquired, the uncertainty and pain reverberating through her voice.

Ruby smiled faintly. "We should move out. We've got a murderer to catch, and we've got three friends and family members that we need to bring peace to." The light had begun to return in her bloodshot eyes, as well as a fierce determination that Blake could've sworn she had seen in Yang many times before.

"Right," Blake replied to her team leader. "For Yang."

Ruby beamed. "For Yang," she echoed.

* * *

"What do you think the others are doing right now?" inquired Jaune nervously.

"I'd imagine they'd be doing the same as us," replied Pyrrha with a slight smile. "There's really not a lot more that you _can_ do with a murderer on the loose and the whole school under lockdown."

"I guess… I guess that makes sense," agreed the blonde. "But… I don't know, maybe some of them escaped?"

"I highly doubt it," replied Pyrrha, waving the torch around to shed light on their surroundings. "Beacon was built to be an impenetrable fortress, if the time ever came to defend it. Problem with that is, since it's made to keep all hostile forces out, it also serves to keep the allied forces in."

Jaune frowned. "Wouldn't that be problematic?"

"Not if going out means certain death."

* * *

Meanwhile, Weiss found a stool.

That was a joke.

Because she didn't.

Sucks to suck.

* * *

"Ahh… right." Jaune nodded thoughtfully. "It's a little strange that we haven't seen anyone yet, don't you think?"

"It really is," Pyrrha agreed. "We've been wandering the school for heaven knows how long, and although Beacon's quite a mammoth facility, I would've imagined we would've run into _something_ by now."

"You don't think… you don't they're all dead, do you?"

Pyrrha shivered. "I'm holding onto hope, Jaune. I really want to believe they're all still alive."

"Ditto."

They continued to traverse the dark, vacant hallways until they discovered a set of doors along the wall, all of which had been opened.

"All these doors are open… that must mean someone's been through here!" exclaimed Pyrrha.

"Do you know what rooms these are?" asked Jaune.

"No, I can't say for sure. Especially since there's not enough lighting to recognize this place." Pyrrha handed him the torch. "Here, you take the doors on the left and I'll take all the doors on the right."

"Wait, what!?" Jaune burst out. "It's gonna be dark in there, why are you giving _me _the torch? And more importantly, what if the person who's been here isn't one of our friend but is actually the killer?"

Pyrrha smiled. "Don't worry. I looked in my rooms and they all have windows. Besides, I can always use the muzzle flash of my rifle to light things up quick."

"But…" Jaune tried to object, but Pyrrha brought her finger up to the blonde's lips.

"Jaune. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," smiled the redhead, and she embraced her partner briefly. "Meet back in five?"

Jaune sighed. "Sure. Please… be careful."

Pyrrha nodded, and she entered door number one.

It was just about as normal of a classroom as you could get.

Nonetheless, Pyrrha made a thorough search of the room, coming up empty-handed.

She moved on to the next room, which seemed quite similar in layout of the first room. With a sigh, she went over the second room as well with no results.

The third room was significantly different.

It was a rather large and cluttered storage room of sorts, and thus, there were no windows. Pyrrha furrowed her brow. Was going in worth the risk?

She sighed once more. "Sorry Jaune. But, I _am_ a huntress, after all." With that, she carefully stepped inside, pulling out Milo and lighting the room every now and again with a shot from the rifle.

She painstakingly and arduously investigated the room, noting every detail out of place. Everything seemed in order – until her eyes found the something notable in the back of the room.

She carefully approached it, and as the sight came into view, Pyrrha felt the urge to puke.

It was a body.

As dim as the room was, the garments that the corpse wore identified it as Neptune, but the bits of his head that remained were barely recognizable.

"Oh my God," breathed Pyrrha, clasping a hand to her mouth. It took everything in her power to keep the bile from rising.

Horrified but adamant, Pyrrha made a search of the body to see if there were any clues hidden about.

To her surprise, her brief search bore fruit.

A small piece fabric, about the size of a penny, rested on the corpse's jacket. Pyrrha carefully removed it and fired a shot in the air to provide adequate lighting.

The color of the fabric gave it away.

"The murderer… oh no." Pyrrha's eyes widened, and quickly got up to bolt towards the door. "I have to tell Jaune!" she gasped, her mind racing at a hundred miles an hour.

Her right foot hit something cold, and she heard a loud snap, allowing Pyrrha a brief second of confusion… and the subsequent horror.

She felt a sharp, biting agony gnawing right above her ankle bone, and Pyrrha screamed as she hit the floor chin-first. In her pain, Milo flew out of her grasp and landed a few feet away from her.

Through the hot tears that blurred her vision, she looked down at her leg to see a foot trap tearing through her armor and cutting deep into the flesh. She desperately tried to pry it open, but the unbearable pain drained her strength and her ability to lessen the trap's bite in the least.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Milo, laying a ways away, and reached out with her semblance of magnetism to pull it towards her.

What she failed to take into account were the half-dozen other metal foot traps of varying sizes that surrounded her.

* * *

_**One sacrificed all and then there were six.**_

* * *

**Again, apologies for this coming out late. I'm slacking on this so bad.**

**I'm a bit underwhelmed at the results of the poll this week. Out of those of you that submitted, 35% of you guessed the right victim, which was expected, and a fair amount of you picked the right weapon, too, but nobody was able to guess them both right. Unfortunate, but we still need a winner, so out of those of you that picked either the right victim or the right weapon, our winner is... Thryr373! Congratulations, I will contact you for a fanfic prompt.**

**So I think I'm going to take a week break from TLH. I'm obviously not meeting schedule, so maybe with a week I can get a head start and pull myself ahead of schedule. TLH will continue on Tuesday, April 7th, and I think I might sweeten this week's pot prize instead of the usual fanfic prompts... so you may want to take the survey for this one ;)**

_**To refresh on the rules, check the Notice 2 in the chapters.**_

_**To refresh on the riddle, participants, and weapons, check the Riddle in the chapters.**_

_**To take up the next survey, click the link on my profile!**_

**See you in two weeks! Good luck!**


	7. AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE

**Hello again!**

**First off, I believe I owe everyone an apology. Last week the chapter did not get posted as promised.**

**I should explain: I just became burned out from all the writing I had been doing, so I took the two weeks after as break for me. Unfortunately, no writing got done, and I just needed a little more time. That's all on me, and I'm sorry.**

**Hope this chapter isn't too bad to make a return from. I'll talk more after the chapter; there's some info that you might want to know.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE**

* * *

Ruby trudged forward, trying her best to keep up a brave face. "What about these rooms? Have we been here before?"

"I think we have," responded Blake warily. "In fact, I hate to break it to you, but I think we've been walking in circles for the last fifteen minutes."

Ruby heaved a depressing sigh. "Of course we have…"

Blake looked worriedly at her despondent leader. It hurt her to see the most exuberant member of their team so down-and-out, and given their current situation, Ruby wouldn't even be able to have the luxury to mourn the loss of her sister.

Not to say that Blake didn't mourn Yang's loss either, but death of her loved ones was not an unfamiliar concept to her. It didn't hurt any less, to be fair, but she had more experience keeping her composure directly afterwards.

Her mind _did_ still threaten to attack her body, but unless it stuck anytime soon, she would be able to put on the façade of emotional strength.

_Criminal…_ _killer…_

Blake vigorously shook her head. Why was that bothering her? Why was Weiss's verbal abuse the thing that resided in her mind? By all means, it shouldn't; Blake knew she obviously wasn't the killer.

… Or was she?

"Blake?"

The cat faunus blinked and realized that Ruby was giving her a concerned sideways glance.

"Y-yeah? What's up?"

Ruby walked towards her. "You stopped moving for a few seconds with this really scared look on your face. You okay?"

Blake swallowed and realized that her throat was parched. "I'm fine. I just… had a really stupid thought, that's all."

Ruby squinted at her dubiously, but nodded. "Alright."

As Ruby continued forward, Blake let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding until now. She carefully walked after her leader, trying to walk off the shakiness in her bones.

Her mind was racing faster than she could keep up with. It was a ridiculous thought, to think that she might have been the killer without even realizing it. It was, by all mean, preposterous. There was absolutely no way – that bullshit didn't happen in real life… did it?

If anything, the voracious amount of books that Blake read did not help separating fiction from reality, especially in as dire situation as this.

It also occurred to Blake that she could not tell anyone, not now. The one person that she accompanied was already distant as it was, and revealing her worries to Ruby would probably incite a Weiss-like reaction.

There was no way. No way in hell could she disclose these accusatory thoughts.

And it was terrible. She had no one to assure her that her worries were silly – the one person with whom she'd be comfortable talking to about it was dead, and the current situation did not provide her the luxury to go to anyone else with her doubts.

Blake knew it was going to make her lose her mind, and she wasn't sure whether that scared her more than the possibility that she was the killer.

"Hey, Blake, look!" Ruby's voice broke through Blake's torrent of thoughts.

The cat faunus looked up and saw several doors on either side of the hallway before her, all of which were open.

"Looks like some people might have been here," noted Ruby, the determination returning to her eyes. "Have we been here before?"

"No. This looks new," murmured Blake.

"Good!" Ruby nodded. "Finally, something to work with."

Blake nodded. "Sure. I'll take the doors on the left."

"Alright," replied Ruby.

They separated, and Blake entered the closest room, which happened to be a teacher's office.

Of course, with the luck that they had been working with that night, Blake wasn't surprised to find the room completely unremarkable, aside from obvious signs that someone had ruffled through the room and inspected it.

Still, that was better than nothing, and the cat faunus took solace in that fact.

Blake set down the fire extinguisher and moved towards the central desk in search of any minute details that could possibly identify the person that had been in the room prior to her.

"A newspaper, some club fliers, random school paperwork, exam grades… not like those are important anymore…" Blake muttered, setting aside the assortment of papers.

Before she had the chance to examine the rest of the items on the desk, her vision suddenly turned to black.

"What the –" she yelped, frantically grasping at her face, which felt like a burlap sack.

A pressure from behind her kept the sack firmly over her head, and she felt something blunt club her on the right side of her head. Unbearable sharp pain took over Blake before she abruptly lost consciousness.

* * *

When Ruby reached the third room, she found a sight that chilled her to the very bone.

On the far left of the room, Neptune's body lay slumped, looking like a frame out of the Zapruder film. In the middle of the room was Pyrrha's horribly mutilated body, her right hand still gripping tightly to her spear.

And kneeling next to her body, with his head down, was Jaune.

"_YOU._"

The words dripped out of her mouth like venom, and Ruby aimed Crescent Rose at Jaune's skull without hesitation. "You killed them, you sick fuck…"

Jaune barely turned his head at the sound of her voice. "Rubes."

"Don't talk to me like we're friends!" cried Ruby, the waterworks beginning to spout, and she cocked her weapon.

The blonde didn't as much as flinch at the sound of the gun. "Go ahead. Shoot me. End my miserable life here."

"W-wait, what?" Ruby wavered, but she kept Crescent Rose's barrel on Jaune. "What sick game are you trying to play?"

Jaune didn't answer her question, but rambled on own instead. "I found her with all these Grimm traps biting deep in through her skin and bones... I couldn't keep her safe, not as a partner, not as a leader. And all I could do was take those terrible things off her. Some useless hunter I am… I didn't even get to tell her that she was more than a friend to me…"

Ruby hesitated for a moment, then lowered her weapon. "Jaune… I'm sorry… I was just so angry when I saw the bodies… I wasn't thinking straight…"

"It's not your fault… it's all mine." He turned to his friend and opened his arms. "Just kill me, please. I've got nothing left to live for. I can't save anyone else, so why do I deserve to live?"

"W-what!? Jaune, no!" Ruby grabbed his arm and roughly lifted him up. "I'm not going to kill you! How insulting to Pyrrha's memory would it be if you just _gave up_? She would be livid! Now you're coming with me, and we're going to go find that son of a bitch, because we owe it to Neptune, to Sun, to Pyrrha… to Yang…"

Jaune's eyes widened. "They got Yang, too!? No…"

"Yeah…" Ruby grimaced. "And I'll be damned if I let this piece of shit get away with killing my sister. Jaune, if you truly feel the way for Pyrrha that you say you do, then we need to do this. For _their_ sake."

Jaune looked back at Pyrrha's corpse. "Yeah… you're right." He knelt over her and kissed his partner softly on the brow before closing her eyes with his fingers. "I'm sorry Pyrrha."

With a sigh, the blonde turned back to Ruby. "Let's go."

* * *

The first sensation that Blake felt was cold. The kind of cold that would cause you to recoil immediately if you were alert enough.

Blake, however, was still barely aware that she was even awake.

The second sensation she felt was a dull, throbbing pain that engulfed the right side of her head.

She groaned – or would've groaned, if her throat wasn't completely parched.

As her cognitive abilities began to kick into functionality, the cat faunus noticed that the feeling of cold only radiated from her left side, and she moved a hand slightly. She almost gasped at how cold the untouched area was. It was biting and bitter, like metal.

Groggily, Blake opened her eyes.

At first her blurred vision was barely able to recognize more than a few colors, but as her eyes adjusted whatever light was available, she could make out the floor, which was indeed metal. She identified her own hands and clothes, just to be sure. She could see the metal bars protruding from the ground…

Wait. What?

Blake snapped upright in the blink of an eyes, and immediately regretted it as pain shot up her right side and straight to her head. Grimacing, she waited a moment for the pain to settle, digging her fingers into her own skin until it did.

As her attention eased off the pain, she slowly refocused it on the strange bars. They surrounded her in every direction, and if she looked up, the bars reached all the way to the ceiling –

Oh.

"A cage," Blake muttered. "How racist…"

* * *

"BLAKE!"

"Hello? Blake? Where are you?"

Now before we continue, you'd think that with a murderer out on the loose who can hear everything that you do in an otherwise abandoned school, you'd be smart enough to not do something _really_ stupid – like calling out someone's name.

Still, as much as we'd hate to admit it, we often do said stupid things in the face of danger.

Ruby and Jaune were no exception.

"BLAKE? Where are you?"

"Man… this is like the time at the docks…"

"The docks?"

"… Don't worry about it. It's basically how we met Sun."

"Oh… right."

Ruby acknowledged Jaune's uneasiness and sighed. "Geez. I hope they didn't get Blake, too."

"I don't think that they did," frowned Jaune. "Everyone else left behind a body."

"Huh…" mused Ruby. "You're right. Color me impressed, Jaune."

"I resent that," retorted the blonde quietly. "You don't think… you don't think that… Blake…?"

Ruby shoulders slumped. "I thought that I knew it wasn't her. But now that she's just disappeared without even a warning… I don't know anymore… it's someone we know. I… I'm still having a hard time coping with that…"

Jaune looked at her worriedly. "Ruby?"

"I… I'm fine, Jaune…" Ruby gave him a faint smile. "I just… c'mon, I wanna check out my dorm room. Maybe Blake left to get something from inside."

Jaune nodded. "Sounds like a good place to start. You lead, I'll follow."

The two leaders made it back to the dorms with surprising ease, having gained a better grasp of the darkened halls after wandering them ad naseum. The dorm room door was previously unlocked, so Ruby instantly knew something was up when the handle of the door refused to budge.

"That's weird," she muttered, cautiously reaching for her scroll.

"Maybe Blake's in there!" Jaune exclaimed brightly before his mood dropped. "Then again, maybe she's the killer…"

The door beeped as it unlocked, and Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose in sniper form.

"Okay, Jaune, on three, I want you to open the door."

"Can do."

"One… two… THREE!"

Jaune shoved the door open and Ruby jumped forward, with her weapon cocked and ready.

"No one here…"

The blonde crouched and peered under the beds. "Yup, not a soul."

Assured that the room was, in fact, devoid of any other people, the two began to search the room. Ruby took her and Weiss's side of the room (Jaune noted that she barely gave Yang's belongings a glance), while Jaune examined Yang and Blake's side.

"What exactly are we looking for?" inquired Jaune?

"Just any sign that Blake might have been in this room, or anything else that looks out of the ordinary."

"Uh… okay. I mean, I'm not really familiar with your room…"

"Oh c'mon," Ruby chuckled softly. "You've been in here a million times."

"Yeah… but I've never been through… well… " Jaune gulped. "… the drawers."

"Oh. Uh… just do the best you can… I think?"

"Uh… alright." Jaune exhaled. "I've got seven sisters, this shouldn't be _too_ bad…"

They searched in silence for a while, with only the sounds of rummaging to remind them that the other was there.

After ten minutes, Ruby groaned and sat down in a more comfortable position. "I got nothing… what about you, Jaune?"

"Nothing here," murmured the blonde from across the room. "Hey Rubes?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever read this?" A hand shot up from behind Blake's bookshelf, with a copy of "Ninjas of Love" in it.

"… Really Jaune?"

"Hey, I'm just curious, alright?"

Ruby sighed and walked over to Jaune's side. "All I know is that every time I tried to bring it up, Yang and Blake _both_ change the subject, so I feel like it's not something I really need to know about. Wait a minute," Ruby pulled out another book from Blake's collection. "'Blood Rose?' I've never seen this book here before."

"What's it about?" Jaune asked.

"Honestly, I don't know, and I don't really think it's important right now." Ruby sighed. "C'mon. Let's get out of here. I think I'm gonna lose it if I stay here for another minute."

"Gotcha."

Ruby made her way out, and as she walked past him, Jaune shrugged and shoved both books in a knapsack before quickly followed after his friend, knapsack in hand.

* * *

Weiss had never been a fan of running.

She had been groomed as an heiress for most of her life, of course, and even her fencing lessons hadn't relied on anything aside from finesse and flexibility. Her glyphs had carried her for the rest of the way.

However, she found herself running the most she'd ever run in her life on this particular night.

In heels, no less.

"There… has to be… a better way…" muttered Weiss under her breath as she slowed to a stop. Her lungs greedily drew in air, and her body bowled over in the effort. After her heart rate returned to a more manageable pace, Weiss steadied herself and took a look around.

"Okay… a classroom! Surely there has to be something in here with which I can break a window," said Weiss triumphantly. Without so much more thought, she walked up to the door and opened it.

"Huh."

Before the heiress stood a myriad of tall, standing mirrors.

Weiss hmphed. "This is ridiculous. Why on earth would there be a room full of just mirrors? That's absurd!"

The audience of no one gave a resounding agreement.

The heiress gave a tired sigh. "Still, I suppose there _could_ be a chair in here. Or something."

And blindly, stupidly, like fucking sheep to the slaughter, Weiss walked into the maze of mirrors.

Each deliberate step sounded even louder in the room's eerie quiet, and soon every single direction loomed over Weiss with mirrors. As much as she hated to admit it, looking in any direction and seeing herself staring back unnerved her greatly. It was as if she could not escape her own gaze, and the effect was even more disturbing with every mirror reflecting off of each other and providing several different Weisses everywhere she looked.

The heiress shivered.

"Stay calm, Weiss. They're just mirrors," she whispered to herself, inching forward little by little.

Eventually the path cut to a mirror with something scribbled in marker across it.

She almost walked past it, but a nagging feeling drew her back. The text seemed drawn rather large and in bright red, as if someone had wanted her to see it.

Weiss collected herself, and as calmly as she could, she walked up to the mirror and read the scrawl.

_I'm the loneliest of all._

Weiss blinked.

She read the text again. Then again. And again once more.

The last time that she did, she made out a looming dark figure in the mirror behind her.

That was the last straw for the heiress, and her façade of confidence shattered instantly.

She ran.

She ran and she ran, and the disorienting mirrors worked their magic against her; when an opening seemed to present itself to Weiss, she would find only more mirrors.

Her stamina ran out quickly afterwards, and she could not help but stop to catch her breath.

Desperately, she looked up, hoping to see some form of exit or help.

What she saw instead was herself, tired, crying, and afraid.

She wiped at her face. The tears were in fact real.

She continued to watch, as if hypnotized, as a hand holding a broken shard of mirror reached around her neck and pressed the glass painfully against her skin.

The glass slid in one, swift motion, and the once pale skin parted in a sea of blood.

* * *

_**One ran from themselves and then there were five.**_

* * *

**You guys knocked this one out of the park. Out of the people who entered a submission, 40% of you picked the right victim, and an overwhelming 66% of you picked the right murder weapon. Color me fucking impressed! On top of that, a third of you picked both the correct victim and weapon! However, we know that there can only be one winner, and that person is... my very own editor himself, Maxaro! Congratulations! I promised something special this week, so not only do you get a free prompt from me to write as your heart desires - you also get an art commission! Be on the lookout for the PM.**

**As if I'm not generous enough, I have decided the final prize for getting the most correct answers. If by the end of the series you are the one with the most correct guesses, you will get a free prompt... and also a steam copy of the whole season of _Life is Strange_. I've played it a little bit and I am thoroughly enjoying it, so I'd like to give someone the opportunity to experience that game as well!**

**This next victim and weapon are probably the hardest in the entire contest, in my opinion, so be ready for that!**

_**To refresh on the rules, check the Notice 2 in the chapters.**_

_**To refresh on the riddle, participants, and weapons, check the Riddle in the chapters.**_

_**To take up the next survey, click the link on my profile!**_

**Good luck and hopefully I'll have the next chapter out on time!**


	8. AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR

**Sigh... I've been neglecting you guys, eh?**

**I'm sorry. Things have been busy. But I promise I'm far from done in terms of fic writing. Expect more updates and even new fics soon.**

**But anyways... I present to you:**

* * *

**Chapter 6: AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR**

* * *

As bad as being cramped inside of a small Grimm cage was, Blake took a little solace in the fact that she probably wasn't the killer.

"On the other hand," she grumbled, "I'm going to have to find some way to get out of here…"

The metal cage was uncomfortably small, probably fit for a Boarbatusk, and Blake found it uncomfortable to even lie down in, much less move around. She shifted herself in order to study the room that her cage currently resided in.

The first thing that caught her eye was a pair of hedge shears shoved neatly away on a shelf in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, even if Blake found some way to maneuver the oversized scissors some fifteen feet across the room all the way to the cage, they probably wouldn't be strong enough to cut through the two-inch-thick reinforced steel bars that lined the cage. The lock was not exactly an external attachment, either; it held two bars of the cage firmly together and made up a large portion of the deadbolt that kept the door shut.

Adversely, Blake's cynical side couldn't help but wonder why Beacon had hedge shears in the first place. The academy was far from well-known for its shrubbery; the most vegetation that manifested in the area was contained within the Emerald Forest.

Of course, the shears weren't the _oddest_ things hidden around the school. Not by a long shot.

For example, concussive dust fire extinguisher.

Try saying that five times fast.

In any case, the room wasn't filled with much else, save more cages, empty boxes, and the occasional foot trap.

Even the cat faunus' quick-thinking mind couldn't find any viable solutions with the given objects.

Blake sighed and leaned her head back against the uncomfortable, cold steel floor of the cage as a dull pang of dread reverberated within her body. She shivered, half from the cold contact, half to shake off the unwelcome feeling that baited her.

From being completely self-brainwashed of her own motives to feeling like a pig at the butcher, Blake was not getting any breaks today.

Although in retrospect, some of her other fellow classmates were probably off have worse luck in their activities. Namely dying. To death.

Before the written descriptions of the scene could get too dry and vapid, Blake heard a door creak open. The cat faunus bolted upright, almost banging her head against the ceiling of the cage, to see…

… A blankly staring Lie Ren, blinking at the sight that he beheld.

Blake stared back, wide-eyed and cautious.

The staring contest went on for a good ten seconds before Ren awkwardly broke the silence.

"Huh… on top of being a killer, whoever this person is also disgustingly racist," Ren sighed, kneeling by the cage lock.

"Tell me about it," grumbled Blake, leaning back down against the hard steel floor. "Textbook evil person, I'm almost convinced this whole thing's some twisted racist joke."

"Textbook evil person?"

"I read a lot, in case you haven't noticed. I know my archetypes."

Ren frowned. "Being sassy in a life or death situation has never been beneficial to anyone."

For a brief moment, Blake toyed with the possible retorts she could use on Ren, but eventually thought better of it. "I'm sorry, Ren. I'm not in the best of moods."

Ren chuckled. "That's understandable, considering the situation we're in."

Blake smiled weakly. "So… can you help out maybe?"

The dark-haired boy nodded, examining the lock briefly before searching the room for a key. "There's a pair of hedge shears over here. Probably won't cut through the bars, though."

"Probably not," Blake groaned dismally.

She watched nervously as Ren dug through the contents of the room. After a few minutes he returned to the cage empty-handed.

"Damn…" Blake muttered.

"I'll see if I can find the key in any of the other surrounding rooms," offered Ren.

Blake paused for a moment, then nodded swiftly. "That would be wonderful."

Ren gave a slight nod in return and headed out of the room.

As his footsteps slowly faded away in the distance, Blake glanced around the room again. Surely, out of the myriad of boxes and traps and cages there could a key for this cage. Hell, if she was lucky, it would be a master key for all the cages so that she wouldn't have to sift through dozens of keys – if those keys even existed.

For some reason, her gaze was drawn back towards the nearest jagged-toothed foot trap.

It lay about an arm's length away, and it thankfully lay closed so that if Blake wouldn't have to be cautious if she needed to handle it.

"Huh," she wondered distantly aloud to herself. "Aren't these traps spring-loaded…"

A few seconds flew by, although they probably could've walked if they wanted to.

Then realization struck.

Blake's eyes widened. "You're a genius, Blake. Your criminal background is finally going to pay off."

With that, she scrambled to grab the disarmed trap and began to disassemble it in a frenzy.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jaune and Ruby stood in the commons, gazing upon the behemoth fortress that resided there.

"So… you said this is all Nora?" Jaune whistled.

"Yup," affirmed Ruby, putting a popping emphasis at the end of her response.

The blonde gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Why am I not surprised?"

With a shrug, Ruby walked up to the makeshift table door and gave it a rapt knock.

"Hello? Nora, you home?"

No answer.

The red-head frowned. "Nora? It's me, Ruby!"

Alas, to no avail.

Ruby impatiently gave one, much harder knock. "C'mon, Nora! Ren told me you were here!"

You've probably read enough TV tropes to know how this goes by now.

With a sigh, Ruby turned back to Jaune. "You… you think she's okay?"

Jaune, pensive, walked up beside Ruby. "I sure hope so. But I think I've got one more trick up my sleeve. If she's here, then I'll get her out in no time."

With a brief grin at Ruby, the blonde cleared his throat dramatically.

"You fight with the strength of many men, Lady Knight!" he shouted up to the fortress. "I am Jaune, leader of the JNPRs, and I seek the bravest and the finest knights in the land who will join me in my court at… um… er… our dorm…? Uh, anyway, you have proved yourself worthy. Will you join me?"

There came not a sound, not even the chirp for a cricket, for they had all fallen asleep.

Ruby shot Jaune a sideways glance. "So much for _that _plan," she smirked. "What the hell was that, anyway? Did you just make something up or –"

"Ah, I'm not done yet," grinned Jaune, then turned his attention back to the fortress. "You make me sad! So be it!"

Jaune placed his hand on the "door" and began to shove against it.

No sooner did he do that when a voice boomed from inside the fort.

"None shall pass!"

Ruby started. "Uh, what?"

"None shall pass!"

The red-head blinked and turned to Jaune. "That's Nora, right?"

Smirking, Jaune called back to the fortress. "I have no quarrel with you, good Lady Knight, but I must enter this fort."

"Then you shall die."

"DIE!? Wait, what?" At this point, Ruby started to panic. "No no no, we don't want that! Please, Jaune, tell her we're just here to help!"

The blonde ignored her. "I command you, as leader of the JNPRs, to stand aside!"

The "door" of the fortress slammed open with a mighty crash to reveal the lady knight in question, hammer at the ready. "I move for no man!"

"So be it!" Without a second of thought, Jaune drew out his sword."

"STOP!" Ruby shrieked, running to place herself in between the two and using Crescent Rose to fend them both off. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"

The two JNPR members stared at Ruby, blinking slowly.

"Uh… did you just cuss?" muttered Nora, lowering her weapon.

"Yeah, I did!" Ruby sighed in exasperation. "How did you manage to make _me_ feel like the weird one here…?"

Jaune chuckled. "Sorry about that. It's just that if I've learned anything from being her teammate for a year, once Nora takes on a role, like being 'queen of the castle,' she sticks to character. Or, more accurately, a lot of characters based on… stuff. Besides, it's not like we were actually going to kill each other, right Nora?"

"Oh… we weren't? I-I mean, yeah, we weren't!" Nora stowed the hammer quickly and flashed a sheepish grin at the two newcomers.

"Uh… yeah! See, Ruby?" Jaune laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

Ruby simply stared back in response.

"Yeah… that's a reasonable reaction." Jaune coughed awkwardly. "So, uh… you've been busy, Nora."

Nora glanced up at the fort. "What? Nah, not really! Only took me, like…" Her face scrunched up as she pondered the time it took. "I actually don't know. I have no idea what time it is."

"Well…" Jaune glanced out the tall windows of the commons. "It's still dark outside, but yeah, I don't really know how much time's passed either. I guess I've been too busy thinking about other… things…" The blonde trailed off.

Ruby glanced in his direction and knew that the restrained grief on his face probably mirrored itself on her own.

Nora didn't get the hint. "Oh yeah! I've been busy with things too! I made a fort!"

Jaune chuckled. "Well, yeah, I can see that. Hey listen, we kinda lost Blake on our way here, and we've been trying to find her. Has she passed through here at all?"

"Nope." Nora shook her head. "Just you guys, Ren, and Yang!"

Ruby turned away at the mention of her sister. "Thanks Nora. I guess this means we'll have to go back on the hunt, right Jaune?"

The blonde boy hesitated. "It might actually be safer if we stayed here and helped with the fort."

"If we do that, we'll just be three sitting ducks grouped conveniently together," countered Ruby.

Jaune paused, mulling the fact over, then nodded. "You're right. Can we trust you to keep the fort warm for when we get back, Nora?"

Nora puffed out her chest in pride. "I'm invincible!"

Ruby shook her head. "You're a loony…"

"I fart in your general direction!"

"Well, your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries…"

"Alright, then!" Jaune, who seemed to have ignored this exchange between the two, gave a wide grin. "Ready, Rubes?"

"Yup." Ruby nodded her affirmation. "Let's go find Blake."

The two headed off into the maze of hallways once more, with Nora looking after them as the disappeared from view. "If she's alive, that is…"

* * *

"I'm very much alive!" gasped Blake as she tumbled out from the confines of her now unlocked prison.

As she flopped onto the floor in triumph, the pins and springs that made up her makeshift lockpick slowly rolled out of her unclenched hand.

Blake kissed the floor that she lay sprawled upon, uncaring for any cleanliness factors involved. "The cat…" she breathed, "… is out of the bag."

Ren poked his head in through the doorway. "You were in a cage."

"Fuck off, Ren."

"Currently fucking off," replied the dark-haired hunter, and he promptly left.

* * *

"So you've seriously never read any of Blake's books before?" Jaune mumbled, innocently enough.

"Nope! Yang never even let me get near that bookshelf," answered his red-haired partner.

The two had been walking down yet another of the numerous hallways in Beacon, and even with the task at hand to focus on, small yet constant conversation helped keep the two hunters from going crazy.

"Surely you must've been curious at some point?"

Ruby shrugged. "Sure, maybe. I love reading, but y'know, becoming a team leader at one of the top hunter schools in the world kinda keeps you busy."

Jaune groaned. "Ughhh, tell me about it. I'm still trying to learn how to be better at this fighting stuff. Or, at least… I _was_ learning, anyhow…"

"Come to think of it," Ruby shuddered, "What are we gonna do once this is all over? I… I don't really know if I wanna go back to Beacon, not after everything that's happened tonight."

"I feel ya." Jaune gave her a sympathetic yet strained smile. "Maybe we'll figure this all out once we find Blake and the killer. Right now I just want this night to end. It feels like this whole thing's been going on for like… six months…?"

The redhead frowned. "Yeah. Kinda feels like we took a really long break, too. Like out of those six months, we did nothing for three."

"Huh," the blonde mulled over Ruby's statement. "I wonder why…"

Without any such warning, a crash emanated from behind the pair.

"YIKES! What was that!?" yelped Jaune.

"I-I have no idea, but I think we probably should find out what that was!" responded Ruby hurriedly.

Jaune blanched. "You really think that's a good idea?"

"Well, we gotta do something! People are dying, Jaune."

Jaune glanced in the general direction of the crash, then back to his friend. "A-Alright. Let's go."

The two cautiously made their way back up the hallway, eyes darting in every direction so as not to miss any hidden surprises. Eventually, the hallway meandered into a fork.

"Dammit," muttered the blonde. "Which way did it come from?"

"I don't know…" Ruby whispered distantly.

The pair exchanged a glance, knowing full well what the other was thinking.

"We're gonna have to split up, aren't we."

The way Jaune said it, they both knew it wasn't a question.

"Yup," nodded Ruby grimly. "Well… I guess I'll see you on the other side?"

Jaune heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I guess so." It took every bit of willpower in him to refrain from uttering the word "hopefully."

The redhead extended a hand with a weary smile, which Jaune grasped tightly.

"Good luck, Jaune."

"You too, Rubes."

With that, the two went on their separate ways, Jaune going off to the left and Ruby taking the right.

* * *

_Huh,_ thought Jaune. _This situation seems familiar…_

Once again, he was alone, sword brandished and bumbling through the hallways. He hadn't been alone since the beginning of night, and the gravity of such hadn't hit him until now as the feeling of profound and oddly familiar loneliness gripped at him once more.

As if that gnawing feeling wasn't bad enough, a crash similar to what Jaune had heard earlier while he was with Ruby rang out immediately to his right.

"EEEEEEEP!" Jaune jumped and fell flat on his ass. A startled glance in the general direction of the crash revealed a closed door.

"Okay, get your shit together, Arc," he muttered to himself. As his heartrate steadily slowed, Jaune slowly got to his feet and walked towards the door.

Sword at the ready, he twisted the handle.

A brief scan of the room in the dark seemed to reveal several end-to-end shelves as well a large table in at the end of the room. Inching closer to the table, Jaune made out what seemed to be a small-ish lamp, and with a sigh of relief, he turned it on.

With the added illumination, Jaune realized that he'd stepped foot into an alchemy room of sorts, with the shelves filled with such ingredients such as various containers of dust, Ursa claws, vials of King Taijitu venom, and other such items that the blonde failed to recognize.

The lone table in the room looked like makeshift laboratory, with beakers, clamps, and hot plates scattered haphazardly on its surface. Some of the equipment even lay in pieces. Perhaps this was the source of the crash?

_Seems kinda inconvenient to only have one lamp in an important room like this, _wondered Jaune. _Although now that I have some light and a little privacy…_

The blonde glanced at the knapsack that hung around his waist. With a shrug, he pulled out the two smuggled books and lay them on the table.

"Alrighty… this was the book I keep hearing about," smirked Jaune, glancing at the copy of _Ninjas of Love_. "Let's see what the hubbub's all about."

He opened the book cover with a smile… and his heart sank.

Instead of a page with the title of the book to greet his curious eyes, Jaune found a rectangular-shaped cutout burrowing deep through the middle of the book.

Laying snugly in said cutout was a now-ticking pipe bomb.

"Oh, _come on!_" groaned Jaune in spite of himself. "That's the oldest trick in the boo-"

The room went up in a cloud of multicolored dust.

* * *

If one had been staring intently at the face of Yang's slightly bloated corpse at that very instant, they might've noticed the corners of her lips twitch upwards.

* * *

_**Curiousity killed the cat and then there were four.**_

* * *

**I might've painted this one out to be the hardest one in the game, but I feel like you guys definitely proved me wrong. Out of the those of you who submitted a guess, a good third of you got the correct victim and a whopping _40%_ of you got the the right weapon. Not quite as well as the last round, but still pretty good job! Our winner this round(haha, I would say "week", but I'm not gonna assume I'll make any more deadlines for this) is... wait for it... Cheatengine343! Well done! You can expect a message from me in the not so distant future... hopefully. Hehehe.**

**For any of you who's been following my works recently... I've got a monster of a fic in the works that you might wanna keep an eye on. Just a heads up. Hopefully it won't be three months before you hear from me again!**

_**To refresh on the rules, check the Notice 2 in the chapters.**_

_**To refresh on the riddle, participants, and weapons, check the Riddle in the chapters.**_

_**To take up the next survey, click the link on my profile!**_

**Good luck and hopefully, TRULY, I'll have the next chapter out on time. Hopefully.**


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